Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01869:reg:4:p44
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01869
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 44/63)
Character Range: 466236–469019

B4-1-10.
    44      Collings in Hansard [Senate], 30 June 1937, in CRS A461, item B4-1-10.
    45      Note on file, 'Proposed Additions to Parliament House, Canberra', 17 December 1937; memorandum, RA Broinowski to Chief Architect, 22 December 1937; and associated correspondence, CRS A292/1, item C15168.
  departments – Social Security, Civil Aviation, and Supply and Development – were formed around this time. Altogether, the 1938 changes to the building produced an increase in floor space of 2,954 square feet (275 square metres) through internal alterations and another 1,664 square feet (155 square metres) by additions, while 20 more offices were created, bringing the total number to 83.46

  At the same time as these modifications were being made, strong pressure for more and better accommodation was being applied from a different quarter. Press representatives had long been unhappy about the twelve offices they had been allocated on the upper floor. Although the accommodation had been adequate enough for the original band of about 25 journalists who made up the Press Gallery, the increase in their numbers during the 1930s, the introduction of new technology and a simple desire for improved working conditions prompted them to begin to push for more and better office space. In response to the journalists' agitation, plans were drawn up in early 1936 to construct another 12 offices for the press on the upper floor, six over the Opposition Party Room (Room M61) on the Representatives side and six over the Ministerial Party Room (Room M44) on the Senate side; the offices were deliberately placed at the rear of the upper floor so that they would not be visible from the front of the building, thus compromising its appearance. But work on the new rooms did not proceed largely, it seems, because the cost estimate was too high.47

  The journalists put up with their irksome working conditions for another 18 months or so until they could no longer tolerate them. In February 1938, the President of the Press Gallery wrote to the Chairman of the Joint House Committee setting out in no uncertain terms the journalists' complaints. He claimed that 'in many respects existing Press accommodation and facilities are among the worst in any British Parliament in the world', while the overcrowding in the press rooms, he said, was 'appalling and would not be tolerated in a factory or office'. Conditions would become even further cramped, he added, as more and more communications equipment was installed, and already four pressmen had to work in a room in which a teleprinter carried out its noisy function. To add to the journalists' woes, they regarded the toilet facilities as insanitary and the worst in the building. During 1939, some of these complaints