Urinals in a renovated Parliament House bathroom will be lowered following complaints

Renovated urinals at SA’s Parliament House have caused a big splash for vertically-challenged MPs.

Urinals in a renovated Parliament House bathroom will be lowered following complaints that their current height “discriminates against vertically-challenged MPs”.

Recent works on the ground floor bathroom included installation of two new urinals – but multiple MPs and staff have found them to be too high.

One of those who raised concerns was independent MLC Frank Pangallo, who said the urinals were inaccessible for someone of his stature.

“It certainly looks a lot better than was there. It was really old, there was asbestos and other problems,” he said.

Frank Pangallo with the new toilets. Source: Digitally altered

“However, the height of the urinals discriminates against vertically-challenged MPs like me.

“It would be embarrassing if I had to run into the toilet and couldn’t use the urinal because it was too high.”

Mr Pangallo raised the matter with new Speaker Leon Bignell on Thursday.

Parliamentary clerk Rick Crump said the renovation had been completed just prior to the current sitting week.

He confirmed complaints had been made about the height, and the urinals would need to be “reinstalled and realigned” but the extent of the work required was not yet clear.

“It’s been brought to our attention and it will be addressed,” he said.

It is understood the urinals will be lowered by 10cm.

Frank Pangallo and Parliament House toilet. Source: Digitally altered

A parliamentary source said multiple MPs and staff had found the urinals “so abnormally high they are unable to be used”.

“MPs and staff are furious over the building blunder that was approved by former Speaker Dan Cregan,” the source said.

“Those bathrooms have been under construction for months and now they need to be redone in a massive waste of taxpayer money.

“Children have faced the same problem and been forced to use cubicles or toilets on the ground floor.”

However, a government spokesman said the upgrades carried out had been on the Parliament’s long-term works schedule for several years and were reviewed by multiple presiding officers, including Liberals.

“The immediate former Speaker was not in any way involved in the detailed planning or commissioning of these works, which were designed to ensure the facilities were disability compliant and met Parliamentary standards,” he said.

“Costs will not be incurred by the parliament to fix any defects required.”

A special investigation by The Advertiser last year revealed traces of the illicit drug cocaine were detected in bathrooms at Parliament House.

A comprehensive swab of the bathrooms of the North Terrace building just after 5pm on December 1, the last sitting day for parliamentarians, came out hot for the designer drug.

Wipes detected cocaine in the male bathrooms on level two – which predominantly houses members and staff of the state’s Liberal party, as well as visitors – and the male bathrooms outside of the House of Assembly.

The Parliament House bathrooms are accessible to both Liberal and Labor Party members, crossbenchers, public servants, staff and visitors.