Department of Parliamentary Services defends charging for tours of Parliament House, increasing parking fees

Rob Stefanic has defended the shift last July to charge for tours of Parliament House, which is one of the most visited public buildings in the Canberra region, during an appearance at Senate estimates, while also defending plans to increase the cost of public parking.

The specialist tours, which have discounts for pensioners, students, carers and children, are more lengthy and may include private areas of Parliament House. While popular, there has been some criticism about the cost.

Under questioning from independent ACT senator David Pocock, the DPS secretary said the idea is that "more tailored" tours are now offered to smaller groups, but the cost had to be covered, particularly for security.

"There is a hard cost to us, increasingly as with all cultural institutions, there has been a need to supplement budgets on a user pays system," Mr Stefanic told the hearing.

"Part of it is an endeavour for us to, I guess, offset costs.

"There is no question we are trying to generate a profit, it is mainly to try to offset costs, to manage our budget."

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Mr Stefanic said the take up of the tailored tours has been "quite strong", but took a question on the revenue generated by the tailored tours on notice.

He stressed free tours are still available.

The DPS head also defended plans to increase the cost of public parking at Parliament House as well as reduce the free parking period from two hours to one hour.

Committee chair, Labor senator Louise Pratt, said some political watchers in Canberra have been put off attending Parliament House on a regular basis because of the parking cost.

Mr Stefanic said the paid public parking decision predates his time in the role.

But he said the Parliament House fee structure is aligned with other institutions in the Parliamentary Triangle and he understood the new fees would have an impact if a member of the public stayed for more than an hour.