The Department of Human Services' boss has weighed into the rodent debate that gripped her workforce in May and declared that an icon depicting striking public servants was a mouse, not a rat.
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Kathryn Campbell declared her position on the vexed question at Senate estimates on Wednesday as a government senator dismissed the affair as "much ado about nothing".
The department also told the committee that only a small number of its staff were taking industrial action over the ongoing wages dispute, although coordinated lunch breaks had forced Centrelink offices in three locations around the country to close for short periods.
Some staff were furious after discovering the icon depicting workers taking protected industrial action on an internal human resources platform was what they described as a rat.
When the icon, which departmental bosses insisted was a mouse, was changed to what was described as a roll of toilet paper, departmental insiders were further appalled.
Eventually it was decided that workers taking stop-work action should be represented by the letter P on the system.
Under questioning from West Australian Liberal senator Linda Reynolds in estimates on Wednesday, Ms Campbell provided her version of the rat controversy.
"It came to our attention that a relatively junior staff member, when they had been allocating icons to protected industrial action, had chosen a mouse to be the icon," Ms Campbell said.
"Immediately we changed it, we changed it to a piece of paper, which some representatives felt was like a roll of toilet paper, so we immediately changed it again.
"I have reviewed said icon and it was a mouse but it was removed.
"This was a junior staff member who, when we talked about it, thought it was cute and innocuous."
Senator Reynolds then declared the whole affair to be "much ado about nothing".
"It's a sensationalist, much ado about nothing story, that's my take on what you said," the Liberal backbencher told the departmental boss.
Departmental officials also told the committee that CPSU-led industrial action was not having much effect on the work of the department and that the numbers of employees taking action was small.
Nine per cent of staff took part in coordinated lunch breaks during the Easter period and fewer than 16 per cent of workers observed a ban on corporate uniforms, the committee was told.
Of 753 workers eligible to read out union-authorised statements to customers, only 23 per cent did so and less than 2 per cent of staff participated in providing customers with a CPSU verbal statement.
