The Australian Taxation Office says its new Barton office will allow the agency to grow its workforce, despite being almost half the size of its current Canberra premises.
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The federal parliament's public works committee dropped a report on Tuesday backing the proposed $125.8 million fit-out of the ATO's new Sydney Avenue office in Barton.
Canberra-based ATO staff are currently spread out across two office spaces on Narellan Street and Genge Street, the leases of which will expire in May and November 2027 respectively.
The new single premises, leased on a 15 year contract, is just 33,521 square metres - 48 per cent smaller than the agency's current floor plan of 64,000 square metres across the two offices.
The tax office acknowledged that this is a "significant reduction" in floor space, demanding a "significant program of rightsizing and ensuring that we use official accommodation efficiently" to fit its 2535 existing staff and growing workforce.
"We have seen significant growth in the ATO workforce across a number of sites, and, because we are a national agency, that means that we can then use the flexibility in sites such as Barton, where it has been built to grow the workforce within that site," the agency told the committee at its September hearing.
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"We're looking at surging our workforce at the moment as a result of a number of measures that the government is looking for us to deliver over the coming four years."
In response to staff feedback, the ATO said the six-level office will include 100 per cent sit to stand workstations, an open plan workspace to ensure better access to natural light, small breakout rooms, and noise management like acoustic barriers between work banks.
The agency told the public works committee that, on receiving parliamentary approval, it would undertake several measures to further engage staff in the fit out.
These include holding regular meetings with working group representatives to discuss the project, creating a project-specific intranet staff with regular updates, and providing prototype furniture for staff to test and give feedback on.
The parliamentary committee said that it was satisfied with the project's "purpose, need and value for money", but continued to caution the ATO to monitor the impact that relocating from Canberra's central commercial district will have on the local economy and staff travel times.
The move has sparked concern from civic businesses, who warned that the relocation to Barton will remove one of their major customer sources.