'Please explain' on $2m blowout

Tuesday 10 February 2026

Jessica Wang

Daily Telegaph

 Labor has been issued a "please-explain" after Senate president Sue  Lines refused to say whether billing taxpayers $2.2m to create a partyroom  for the Greens was a "reasonable use" of public money.
 
 Despite having an initial budget of about $500,000 in 2023, costs later  ballooned to $1.6m. An extra $596,000 on surrounding service upgrades bought  the total spend to $2.2m, with invoices revealing a spend of more than  $153,000 on joinery, and more than $48,000 to buy about 500sq m of  custom-made carpet. Grilled over the difference between the initial quotes  with the final costs, Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) senior  official Paul Pak Poy told a senate estimates hearing on Monday costs  "can and do change quite a lot through the design process".
 
 Under questioning from Coalition finance spokesman James Paterson, Ms Lines,  a West Australian Labor senator, would not say whether the total spend was a  "reasonable use of taxpayers' money".
 
 She said she would not comment "in retrospect" on cost increases she  was not informed of and, while she okayed the proposal for the partyroom, the  budget was considered an operational matter and did not require her approval.
 
 "I am vigilant in the expenditure of public money where it is my  responsibility," she said.
 
 Officials said the high costs were in part attributed to the $600,000  renovations to the roof, and costs to expedite the project to ensure the room  was usable ahead of parliament opening in 2025. Senator Paterson said the  blowout was the "perfect example of the Albanese government's loose  approach to taxpayer money".