Greens' $1.6m room reno

Tuesday 02 December 2025

Thomas Henry

The Australian

 Taxpayers have forked out more than $1.6m to renovate the Greens partyroom, senior bureaucrats have revealed during Senate estimates on Monday.
 
 Despite the party's presence in the lower house having been decimated at the last election, and senator Dorinda Cox's defection reducing its numbers in  the Senate, it was able to wrangle the money for a new partyroom.
 
 The room sports 15 leather swivel chairs to seat their 11 representatives on the hill, along with a photograph of Greens co-founder Bob Brown.
 
 Officials from the Department of Parliamentary Services confirmed the total renovation costs had blown out to $1,628,997, spent between 2023-24 and  2025-26.
 
 The Finance and Public Administration Senate estimates heard that costs for demolition, design, planning, architecture and engineering services had been  incurred alongside broader renovation works.
 
 Senate President Sue Lines said ceiling works had significantly contributed to the cost of renovating the room, but emphasised the work had begun in 2022  under the Morrison government.
 
 "Opening up the ceiling for the establishment of this partyroom has provided good learning for what needs to happen in the future," she  said. "That would have they added to the cost of the delay."
 
 Previous disclosures by the department to Liberal senator James Paterson showed the construction of the Greens partyroom totalled just under $289,714  in 2025-26, $886,521 in 2024-25 and $452,762 in 2023-24.
 
 Senator Paterson said the $1.6m spent on a single room renovation was an "extraordinary waste of taxpayers' money".
 
 "You could build multiple family homes for $1.6m," he said.
 
 "The Albanese Labor government should explain why they thought this  renovation represented good value for money, and what the Greens have  promised in return for their exorbitant partyroom."