The completion of a $9.4 million restoration effort at The Lodge should end decades-long debates about building a new official Canberra residence for the prime minister, according to a senior bureaucrat.
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A week after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy moved into the historic Deakin property, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet deputy secretary Elizabeth Kelly said the restored and upgraded home should continue to be used for a very long time.
Mrs Turnbull last week led press tours of the restored 1927 home, after what Ms Kelly described as the property's first major renovation and restoration. Originally commissioned under Labor in 2013 and with an expected cost of $3.2 million, upgrades to the Georgian revival-style design originally included asbestos removal, replacement of the degraded slate roof and health and safety improvements.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott approved an expanded scope of works, including upgraded security systems, improvements to living areas and bathrooms and replacement of run-down Australian Federal Police guard houses. Other additions included a specialised "luggage lift", new soft furnishings and interior decoration, and balcony balustrades.
Ms Kelly said while the home had always been intended only as a temporary residence for the prime minister, there were no current plans for a new Lodge to be built. Prime ministers including Malcolm Fraser, Paul Keating and John Howard have each rebuffed plans for a replacement, while former ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope said the "dark, dingy and unsuitable" house should be replaced in the fullness of time.
The former Federal Capital Commission and the 1970s Committee on Official Establishments both expected The Lodge to be a temporary residence until a "permanent monumental prime minister's residence is constructed." At that time, the Deakin home could be used for other official purposes or become a home for the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
An eight-hectare site on Stirling Ridge in Yarralumla was gazetted in March 1989 as national land for future Commonwealth use, while more recently a 6.8-hectare site at nearby Attunga Point has been considered for a possible future location for the prime ministerial residence.
"There's no intention at the present time to further consider a new Lodge, and I think that the work that we've done has made The Lodge a fitting place for our prime minister to occupy while he is in Canberra," Ms Kelly said.
"Prime ministers have been living in The Lodge for 89 years. It was intended to be used for five [years] ... so I would think with the work that we've done, we will be able to use it for a very long time."
Any development of a new residence could have been completed when the new Parliament House was built, because the two original buildings were completed at the same time, Ms Kelly said.
"Certainly it was originally a question of not wanting to spend too much money on the prime minister's house, and so that's why this temporary house was built. The issue has never been revisited."
Ms Kelly estimated about 50 per cent of the $9.4 million cost of building works related to health and safety improvements, while about 25 per cent each related to interior refurbishments, including bathrooms and a new industrial kitchen, and to security improvements.
Mr Abbott's decision to extend the project saw him become one of three prime ministers never to live at The Lodge since Stanley Melbourne Bruce moved to the new national capital in 1927. James Scullin considered the residence "a wicked waste of money" and never moved in, while Ben Chifley opted to stay at the Hotel Kurrajong. Mr Chifley's wife Elizabeth Chifley used the residence for family and official guests.
The Lodge has three permanent and full-time staff: a chef, a household manager and a household assistant. Contractors maintain the property's gardens and grounds.
