Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01869:reg:4:p56
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01869
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 56/63)
Character Range: 497054–499847

The choice of option was to a large, but not an overwhelming, extent based on a desire to reinstate a symmetrical plan for the building; considerations of cost and of securing as much extra space as possible for the money to be outlaid were other important considerations. The chosen option provided for the

    66      Souter, Acts of Parliament, p. 453; Eric Sparke, Canberra 1954–1980, Canberra, AGPS, 1988, p. 58; House of Representatives file 1/105 part 1, OPH; Canberra Times, 4 December 1983; Emerton, 'The Case for a Permanent Building', p. 15.
    67      Frank Green, quoted in George Kerr, 'The Capitol's cracking up!', Australasian Post, 11 April 1957, p. 11.
    68      Sparke, Canberra 1954–1980, pp. 114–15; House of Representatives file 1/105 part 1, OPH; The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Government Printer, 1968, under heading 'Parliament House'; House of Representatives file 71/195, OPH; file 'Squash Courts at Parliament House', CRS A4940/1, item C4112.
  construction of small extensions to the front east and west corners of the building, new offices on the roof and a wing on the Senate side to match the wing erected on the Representatives side in 1965. Construction of the Senate (or southwest) wing was to take place first so that the Prime Minister, his staff and the Cabinet Room could be temporarily located in this wing while modifications were carried out to the existing Prime Ministerial suite and Cabinet Room in the front eastern section of the building. The contract for the work, amounting to $2.2 million, was awarded to Citra Australia.69

  By the time the contract was let, the accommodation shortage in the building had become quite acute. The dire shortage was due in part to important developments in parliamentary practice. In mid-1970, largely on the initiative of Senator Lionel Murphy, a new system of Senate Standing Committees was introduced. This innovation, which saw seven committees in operation by October 1971, produced a demand for extra committee meeting rooms and more spacious office accommodation for senators so that they could store the greater quantity of papers they now had to deal with70. But office space was in any event already extremely hard to come by. As at 15 April 1970, private members were using for their offices 39 single rooms, 23 double rooms and four triple rooms, while senators were using 22 single and 13 double rooms. To accommodate them properly, an additional 44 single offices were required: 31 for members and 13 for senators.71 So great had the demand for office space become that, after the 1969 federal election, the Serjeant-at-Arms, desperately searching for accommodation for some of the newly elected parliamentarians 'took one MP to a tiny space used as a cleaning