OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE AND CURTILAGE HERITAGE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2008–2013

2. Description
Part A – Context
Old Parliament House and Curtilage Heritage Management Plan 2008–2013
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Parliament House; cramped it might have been, but it
was close to the Labor Party Room and the chambers.
Every subsequent Prime Minister has worked in similar
close proximity.
Other significant changes also followed the election of
the Scullin Government in 1929. The defeated Country
Party moved out of the Third Party Room on the
Government side of the House of Representatives into
the Opposition Party Room in the Senate, the room was
divided, and two senior ministers and their staff moved
in. The erstwhile party room later became the office
of the Deputy Prime Minister. Whether in government
or not, the Country Party and its successors operated
from the Senate Opposition lobby from then on. As a
result, in about 1938 when the Senate Club became
the Senate Opposition Party Room, tacit recognition
that the ideal of senators meeting across party lines to
represent the interests of their states was waning in the
face of the party system.
Although pressure on accommodation grew through
the 1930s with complaints that the party rooms were
unsuitable working spaces for backbenchers, it was the
growth of government during the Second World War
which produced the first major additions. Two-storey
wings were added to each side in 1943, principally to
provide ministerial accommodation but also with a few
offices for private members and senators. This broke
the connection between the internal garden courts
and the rose gardens on either side of the House.
Meanwhile, conversions of verandahs and loggias into
offices continued. The building had reached ‘saturation
point’, the Serjeant-at-Arms reported in 1940, and
the wings only provided momentary respite. In 1948
a further floor was added to the new wings and they
were extended. One factor in this expansion was growth
in the number of parliamentarians in 1948, which for
the first time took the size of the parliament beyond
what had been predicted in the 1920s. Because
parliamentarians had individual seats, the chambers
themselves became crowded with seats and desks.
Demand for offices meant that even though two new
outer wings were added to the 1940s extensions in
1965 (House of Representatives) and 1970 (Senate),
many backbenchers were forced to share their tiny
rooms with each other and with their staff. In 1970 four
rooms even had three Members sharing them.
These issues, the constant growth in the size of
ministerial staff, and the substantial cost of maintaining
an ageing building, revived the question of a permanent
Parliament House after 1956. An extension of the north
wing of the building in 1972 created only a modest new
Prime Minister’s suite along with a larger Cabinet Room
and new accommodation downstairs for the Treasurer,
where Hansard had previously been located. Matching
works gave the President of the Senate a small new
suite and created a large committee room downstairs,
in constant use as the Senate committee system grew:
it also provided space for press conferences. Security
also became an issue in the 1970s. Blast screens
over some windows and a new security-screened
entry under the front steps were stop-gaps, and the
need for new communications facilities created further
problems. Secure wiring of an ageing building in which
much of Australia’s defence, foreign policy and security
decisions were made was difficult, and the media
crowding into a warren of shabby rooms on the top
floor of the building also needed new facilities. In 1983
Prime Minister Bob Hawke laid the foundation stone
for a new Parliament House, which the Queen opened
in 1988. After 61 years, much as had been predicted
in the 1920s, the time had come for Old Parliament
House to move into a new era of its eventful history.
A full history can be found in Appendix D.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, with Prime Minister Robert Menzies
at the state ball in Kings Hall in 1958
Source: National Archives of Australia