A $83,536 luggage lift has been installed into the prime minister’s Canberra residence at taxpayers’ expense.
The lift was part of a $150,000 renovation of the Lodge, the true cost of which has been revealed on Monday by answers to Senate estimates.
Labor has also used Senate estimates to criticise the lack of checks on the use of WhatsApp by ministers and government staff.
The deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Elizabeth Kelly, told estimates on Monday the luggage lift had been installed to protect staff.
“The stairs are of an unusual depth, so we have had a member of the staff injure herself on the stairwell,” she said.
Kelly said the lift also protected the heritage value of the stairs. It cost $83,536 excluding GST, implying a total cost of $92,818.
Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said “no other prime minister” had needed the lift. Kelly said the luggage lift was part of renovation plans in 2010 but confirmed that only Malcolm Turnbull had lived in the refurbished Lodge.
The renovation also included $24,680 on upholstery, $22,356 on white goods and $18,000 on window soft furnishings. The total cost of refurbishing the Ruth Lane Poole lounge and two matching chairs was $11,524.22.
Asked about the reportedly widespread use of WhatsApp by ministers and their staff, the department’s deputy secretary, Allan McKinnon, said he was confident that security-cleared staff were aware of their responsibilities.
“It’s not our responsibility to be sitting over ministers’ and parliamentarians’ shoulders as they have their communications whether it’s by a telephone or app or anything else,” he said.
“I have seen a range of statements by the prime minister which indicates he is well aware of his obligations for sensitive and secure information being transmitted across a range of platforms … including government systems and his own.”
The prime minister’s special adviser on cyber security, Alastair MacGibbon, and the attorney general, George Brandis, confirmed they communicate with colleagues including Turnbull over WhatsApp. They said the messages did not relate to national security or cabinet.
Brandis said the messages were entirely unremarkable but he declined Wong’s offer to share them with the public.
The cost of renovations was revealed in answers taken on notice from Senate estimates in February which were not provided until Monday, just hours before the start of new hearings.
Wong expressed “disappointment at the discourtesy” shown by the department in returning the supplementary answers late.
The Senate finance and public administration legislation committee had set 14 September as the date for the answers’ return.
On the day of Estimates. Accountability? @pmc_gov_au https://t.co/G7GfQYER1C
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) October 16, 2016
Kelly said the tardiness was due to the caretaker period. Wong said that as a courtesy the committee did not call the departmental secretary, Martin Parkinson, but would do so if answers were not more timely.
