The federal government has been accused of forking out almost $1 million per year for office space in Sydney's CBD just so it can impress potential investors.
Department officials told a Senate estimates hearing the Major Cities Unit was located in the Deutsche Bank building in Phillip Street, in Sydney's CBD, to attract investment from the "top end of town".
"The Australian taxpayer is forking out $950,000 a year just so public servants can impress the socks off likely investors," Nationals senator Fiona Nash said in a statement, relating to the costs of the lease.
Officials said three sites had been considered and the choice of the Phillip Street offices meant the department could save $1 million in fit-out costs by using existing facilities.
Senator Nash said she wondered what value-for-money proposition for the taxpayers investment was presented to whoever signed off on the Major Cities Unit lease.
"If the Rudd Labor government was truly the economic conservative government they want taxpayers to believe they are, don't you think they'd have gone for a more affordable option," she said.
The government could have invested the savings from a more practical and affordable leasing arrangement - to house the unit's 16 staff - into service delivery programs within Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese's own department.
The unit's location was another example of Labor wasting taxpayers' dollars, Senator Nash said.
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