Taxpayers fork out huge sum to upgrade NSW parliament cafe

Taxpayers have forked out enough to buy a small inner Sydney apartment to renovate a cafe in NSW parliament house.

Taxpayers have forked out enough to buy a small inner Sydney apartment to renovate a cafe in NSW Parliament House that is mainly used as a bar during parliamentary sitting weeks.

Extensive renovations saw the public cafe shuttered for much of 2024, with the bill coming in at a whopping $778,000, plus GST.

The cost stunned hospitality industry insiders, who told The Sauce that the work could have been done for much less cash.

The interior of NSW Parliament freshly renovated cafe. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Details of the costly reno were uncovered during a budget estimates hearing, where Upper House President Ben Franklin declared the cafe — which was “seriously in a bad way” — needed to be updated to meet work health and safety standards and modern building codes.

The cafe started life as a staff bar in the 1970s, and — until last year — had not been updated since.

A spokeswoman for NSW parliament told The Sauce that the renovations included fixing drainage problems and waterproofing to stop water leaking into the parliamentary library, installing a wheelchair accessible counter, and fixing distances between food-preparation areas and handwashing stations which had been non-compliant with food safety standards.

In budget estimates, Franklin said the “aesthetics” of the cafe had also been improved.

That is arguable; regular patrons of the bar on parliamentary sitting weeks believe it has lost its charm, and now resembles an airline departure lounge.

The interior of NSW Parliament freshly renovated cafe. Picture: Jeremy Piper

While $778,000 (plus GST) is an astonishing amount to pay to give a small bar a facelift, the cost is small beer, compared to the total cost of renovating Macquarie Street, which came in at about $22 million.

That includes upgrades to the parliamentary gym, which will re-open by the end of January.

The invisible candidate

The Liberal candidate for Bradfield in Sydney’s north will be decided next Saturday, in what party insiders expect could be a bruising factional fight.

Indigenous Leader and leading anti-Voice campaigner Warren Mundine is taking on Gisele Kapterian, who was the candidate for North Sydney - before the seat got abolished.

Also running is perennial candidate Michael Feneley, who has contested preselection everywhere without success.

While Feneley is not expected to make waves, it could be a tight result between Kapterian (supported by the Moderates) and Mundine (supported by the Right).

The small fact that there is no candidate yet in the field has not stopped outgoing MP Paul Fletcher from rallying supporters.

In a somewhat awkward social media video, Fletcher pleaded with locals to back “our new Liberal candidate” — whoever that may be.

Maybe Fletcher will dub in the name of the winner on the video next week.

Year of the (beer) snake

After Police Minister Yasmin Catley declared that cricket fans feeding beer snakes were not breaking the law, your Sauce correspondent was surprised to see security guards at the SCG policing crowds enjoying the Australian tradition.

Liberal MP Chris Rath, who has been leading the charge to protect beer snakes, was so concerned that he wrote to Cricket Australia demanding they relax their rules.

“Cricket Australia shouldn’t want to be seen as wowsers by taking on a role as the fun police,” Rath wrote.

An impressive beer snake at the Sydney v Indis Cricket Test.

He suggested Cricket Australia “take a stand for freedom against the nanny state by allowing beer snakes to be enjoyed by cricket fans”.

While plenty of patrons had their beer snakes confiscated last week, the Sauce did see one impressive example of the species that took no fewer than seven people to hold.

Originally published as Taxpayers fork out huge sum to upgrade NSW parliament cafe