Defence's million-dollar goodie bags

Public Eye was initially taken aback at the huge bill, but a quick check of the record shows it pales in comparison to the $2.4 million the department spent during the 2022-23 financial year.

The standard Senate estimates question usually turns up a few branded Frank Green water bottles, some mugs, perhaps a keychain here or there, but once again, Defence expenditure is in its own category.

By comparison, the Agriculture Department had spent $70,389 on merch this financial year, as of February. It's not clear whether the Defence QoN includes all Defence agencies, but even then, the promotional merchandise bill for all the agencies in the Agriculture portfolio was $122,700, for roughly the same period.

So what exactly is the department splashing all this money on? Our guess is as good as Defence's, it seems.

"Defence systems do not currently capture information to a sufficient level of detail to provide an itemised list of merchandise," their QoN response reads.

"Defence purchases include artefacts for trade shows, commemorative items, and a variety of promotional merchandise."

We know - thanks to an earlier inquiry - the submarine-shaped paperclips they procured for AUKUS announcements only cost about $500, so there must be some seriously good merch to be had.

Top-of-the-line pencils? Silk pillowcases with Defence branding?

Whatever it is, Defence merchandise is clearly next level.

An incensed Bill Shorten called journalists to his office last week for a last-minute announcement.

The Government Services Minister was furious with the Greens and the Coalition for delaying passage of the NDIS reform bill in the Senate until early August.

The bill is part of a tranche of reforms to the scheme, which aims to reduce spending, including by reducing the number of eligible new participants.

Mr Shorten said delaying the legislation would cost taxpayers $1.1 billion, as he unveiled a new website hosting a "waste clock", to track every second and every corresponding lost cent.

The website, hosted at outoftouchwithcostofliving.com - yes, that's correct - is not what you would call, an artistic feat. Was an APS6 in the National Disability Insurance Agency responsible for it? Nope.

"It was my very skilled ALP team," Mr Shorten said.

Health has laid out its vision to revamp parts of its Woden headquarters, with what could be a $24 million "contemporary fit-out".

AusTender documents reveal the plans to partially demolish and rebuild levels three and five of its national offices later this year, part of the department's so-called "New Ways of Working" plan.

According to the documents, Health's goal is "improving the typology and ration of collaboration settings to better meet the needs of an emerging and future workforce".

Now while we're not sure exactly what this means, office-goers can expect new standing work desks, "modern" light fixtures and instant chilled and boiling water taps in shared kitchen spaces.

"Our new office environments provide a variety of work settings to meet the needs of our staff when they are working from the office," a department spokesperson said.

"These include ergonomic desks grouped so teams can work together, areas for individuals to do focused work, bookable rooms for individual or pair work, and a large number of meeting and breakout spaces to support collaboration."

The department says it wants to reduce the costs associated with "churn" and we strongly believe this can be achieved with new leather stools and free sparkling water.

Health maintained its hesitancy about confirming whether the new arrangements indicated a permanent transition to hotdesking.

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Instead, staff will move to unallocated seating within neighbourhoods where they can select the desk they wish to work on that day (basically, hotdesking)

Department staff on levels three and five will also be graced with brand new refrigerators, microwave ovens and dishwashers.

Health hopes to have its modern-day office revamp done by May 2025 and estimates costs anywhere between $18 million to $24 million.