‘Pervasive culture of waste’: At least $1.5m in furniture for parliament is in storage

The furniture bought for Parliament House is languishing in two off-site storage sites, the Department of Parliamentary Services has revealed.

The department admitted that after spending almost $35K on a single prototype sit-stand desk for parliamentarians, it had has deemed it not “feasible” to retrofit existing desks.

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At least $1.5m worth of furniture bought for Parliament House in Canberra is languishing in two off-site storage sites, the Department of Parliamentary Services has revealed, after it faced accusations of a “pervasive culture of waste”.

This comes after furore over the costs associated with individual furniture items made for Parliament House: a $20,000 bespoke desk made for then department of parliamentary ser­vices deputy secretary Cate Saunders, and $35,000 on a prototype sit-stand desk for parliamentarians.

The department said $1.5m of furniture now sits in off-site storage, including $45,920 in 21 TV cabinets, $40,152 on 14 cocktail and TV cabinets, and $35,588 on 11 executive desks.

The department also admitted that after spending $23,463.64 on planning and design for a sit-stand desk for parliamentarians and $11,895.02 on constructing it, it had deemed it not “feasible” to retrofit ­existing desks for sit-stand capability and it was an ongoing project.

“Due to concerns with retrofitting the desks, to include (for ­example) information and com­muni­cation technology (ICT) internal cabling, and the weight of the desktop not being compatible with available lifting mechanisms, modification of existing desks has not been assessed as feasible,” the department said in a response to a question on notice from the last round of Senate estimates.

“There is, however, an available ‘return’ to existing desks that allows a smaller surface area to be ‘sit-stand’ compatible. There are a small number of these returns (costed at about $1000) already in place in some APH office sites.

“DPS will consider how best to progress available furniture options for use in Parliament House, including consultation mechanisms with parliamentarians.”

Further, the department said the $20,000 desk for the deputy secretary’s office that kicked off the saga had since been “returned to the Australian Parliament House and is now in use”.

Then opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume accused the department of having a “pervasive culture of waste”.

“I understand we don’t necessarily want some of the beautiful rooms in Parliament House filled with furniture that looks like it came off a hard rubbish collection,” Senator Hume said during Senate estimates hearings in March.

“That’s fine. But this is, I think, of great concern.

“Perhaps the taxpayer can recoup some of the waste of that department’s decisions by maybe selling some of the stuff that is off-site that we are clearly never going to use.”

The department said it could not produce a figure for the collective value of its stored furniture since it “does not maintain the current market value of each individual item due to the bespoke ­nature of each piece”.

“However collective value of furniture in storage at the main facility is currently valued at $1.5m.”.

The department produced a ledger of its “tagged” collection, collectively worth $844,512.72 for 891 pieces of furniture, including $33,645 for eight parliamentarians’ reception desks, $35,900 for seven meeting tables, and $59,628 for 37 lounge chairs.