Julie Bishop Drops $1.5k+ On ‘Facebooky’ Office Beanbags, Confuses Everyone

So, Bishy launched innovationXchange in March, a $140 million 4-year project. It’s a team of philanthropists, and the centre is responsible for “developing new partnerships to ensure our aid program takes advantage of new approaches and technologies to deliver better outcomes for development impact”. The staff there “meet with innovators, private sector organisations and entrepreneurs who offer new approaches to aid delivery”.

Okay, cool, we guess. (Except for the fact they took $11.3 billion from the foreign aid budget to do it.) 

But we digress: Bisho dun goofed and ruined everything by describing the centre as a “gorgeous little funky, hipster, Googly, Facebooky-type place”. 

And now, the centre’s gone and spent $1770 on beanbags. Huge, cushy, hipster, ‘Googly, Facebooky’ beanbags. Three of ’em, and they cost a whopping $590 each. 

Which makes for a pretty fkn expenno beanbag, in our expert opinion. 

After Crikey published their article about it today, people expressed a reasonable amount of confusion about exactly how luxury beanbags are supposed to help innovation:

Who needs beanbags & table tennis tables to ‘innovate’ stupid ideas? “Bishop’s ‘Googly, Facebooky’ $500 beanbags” https://t.co/Ys8AlBRloV

— Paul (@canisverba) December 9, 2015

$590 feels like a lot for a bean bag. #justsaying https://t.co/KuQtMFM5fe

— Nic Christensen (@nicchristensen) December 9, 2015

@joshgnosis are the beans full of innovation ideas?

— X-Maz greetings (@Nawiehekatl) December 9, 2015

hilarious: DFAT’s beanbags and ping pong tables to make it ” googly’ and ” hip”: https://t.co/GEcm7NVDoH via @crikey_news

— Deborah Snow (@DeborahSnow) December 9, 2015

When questioned on it, the centre said it was a cheaper option than purchasing a 3-seater couch. Which… like… it’s definitely not. But okay, w/e. 

We’re sure they’ll level it out by choosing the cheapest foosball table money can buy, those crazy funky hipster philanthropists!