The secret garden at Parliament House that’s cost taxpayers $520,819.20
We’re not allowed to show you pictures of Parliament House's secret garden ... but we CAN tell you how much it’s costing taxpayers.
The Morrison government spent more than half a million taxpayer dollars to fix leaky pot plants outside the VIP dining room for politicians in Parliament House.
According to Senate president Scott Ryan, the Department of Parliamentary Services spent $520,819.20 on landscaping in the exclusive courtyard garden — located on level two with views overlooking the Canberra Bubble™.
Strewth would love to show you a snap but the press isn’t allowed in and we’re banned from taking photographs in that part of the building.
We can tell you that Shape Australia Pty was paid to “undertake essential work required to rectify major leakage associated with the planter boxes, which are a key design feature of the members and guests’ terrace”, written answers given by Ryan to Labor’s Questions on Notice claim. The work commenced on April 1 and finished on May 27.
What did pollies get for our $500k? Ryan said 150 cubic metres of soil was replaced, along with some corroded steel bars. A new “waterproofing membrane” was installed “in accordance with engineer’s specification”, plus a new irrigation system, mulch and more. If only it was that easy to stop internal party leaks! Curiously, the Shape contract was not published on the AusTender site within the required 42 days (as set out in Commonwealth Procurement Rules) “due to an administrative oversight”. We guess they fork-got about it? Ain’t nobody got thyme for that.
-
Trowel-sered it
Labor senator Kimberley Kitching has some thoughts about the elusive Department of Parliamentary Services, the only government department exempt from Freedom of Information requests. “They miss deadlines, break promises, massively overspend on everything from $400,000 coffee carts to $500,000 on fixing pot plants — all while failing to get the basics right,” Kitching said.
-
Grass is always greener
Hang on a second — could this $500k drip solution mean a watery savings for Josh Frydenberg’s October’s budget?
Last year, Strewth dug up the $559,897 bill charged to Quiet Australians to keep the parliament lawns evergreen. According to the Department of Parliamentary Services’s annual report: “Total water consumption for 2018-19 was 241,826KL … an increase of 21 per cent on the 199,797KL consumed the previous year.”
Also up: “Landscape water consumption increased from 106,542KL in 2017-18 to 120,626KL in 2018-19 … an increase of 13 per cent.” Why so heavy-handed with the hose? DPS blamed it on the ACT’s warmest summer on record, “30 per cent plant losses sustained throughout the Senate side gardens” and “waterproofing issues with the Members and Guests terrace garden”. Aha! Don’t worry, we’ll keep a close eye on the watering can.
-
Changing rooms
How much would you pay for a “small meeting room table”? Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud’s Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment dished out $92,224 on “the purchase of 160 small meeting tables (1200mm diameter)” for its ACT office.
That’s $524 (excluding GST) per “Brooke Disc Table”. Are they made of marble, Tony Abbott-style? (For the record, the former prime minister coughed up $2027 to replace the Italian marble coffee table — purchased in 1980 for $590 — that was smashed by Joe Hockey during the infamous post-spill party in parliament). No further description was forthcoming, but a departmental mandarin insisted to Strewth the new furniture was not bespoke, rather “an off-the-shelf item from the Zenith catalogue”. The redesign by the Adelaide interior firm is “to repurpose former directors offices in the John Gorton Building into small meeting rooms”. “There are in excess of 190 rooms in the building which have been previously designated as directors offices. This will enable repurposing of spaces to a more functional use for all staff.” Sounds COVIDSafe!
Pic of the broken marble table after Abbotts farewell party. #marblegate pic.twitter.com/4D0Wi9yHgL
— Katy Gallagher (@SenKatyG) October 19, 2015
-
Silence of the …
Meat update! Lamb consumption for the month of June rose 13.6 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. And we think we know why — David Herbert’s hearty recipe for lamb mince moussaka featured in the Weekend Australian magazine. It’s certainly been a lockdown hit in Strewth’s house!
-
Borders on insanity
File this one under “only in Queensland”. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk posted a video of her announcing the new NSW/ACT border closure to social media on Wednesday. A maroon Strewth spy spotted a watermark floating in the top right corner of the shot — a white outline of the sunshine state’s border. A bit much?
The situation in Victoria hasn’t improved as we hoped and I’m not prepared to wait for New South Wales cases to get any worse. That’s why we’ve made the decision for a hard border closure. #covid19 pic.twitter.com/BjcYbvJNUK
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 5, 2020
-
Chive Palmer
West coast noshery Rack City Ribs is selling a new NSFW burger called The Fat Can’t, inspired by Clive Frederick Palmer’s High Court challenge.
The description: “Chive Palmergiana, bacon, onion, chips, cheese, tomato, ketchup, seeded potato bun and Helmans mayo. Part proceeds go to border security. Show support for your state, eat a Fat Can’t $15.90.” While we’re not on board with the size-shaming, the tasty bite is proving to be very popular with the good burghers of East Morley. “Get in quick before ol mate eats them all! Show your west coast solidarity against the tyranny from the beast in the east,” RCR posted on Facebook.
The commonwealth consciously uncoupled from Palmer’s hard border battle on Sunday. But there will be no “and the High Court will so hold” from Labor.
Perth-based shadow minister Madeline King said: “Unlike Liberal prime ministers Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, I’m not going to try and predict what a High Court might decide in this.” We all know how WA Premier Mark McGowan feels: “Mr Palmer is the enemy of the state. He is the enemy of West Australians.”-
Liberal lettuce
After Paul Keating accused “baby-faced Liberals” of campaigning against an increase to superannuation for younger workers, Strewth thought it was only fair to give millennials an insult right of reply! “Paul Keating likes antiques. His super system is a broken antique,” 36-year-old NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg bagged the former Labor prime minister. “Only a dinosaur with a generous publicly funded pension would want to stand in the way of millions of Australians accessing their own money when they need it,” 32-year-old Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson added.
strewth@theaustralian.com.au
Libs should be-Ware what they say about JWH
Could things get any worse for the Liberals in Hughes? Well, strap in. Diary can reveal that Liberal candidate Jenny Ware once called John Winston Howard ‘out of touch’.
Believe in your selfie, Andrew
Kevin Rudd appears to have met his selfie match in Andrew Charlton.