As everyone knows, keeping one’s mansion looking brand-spanking new takes a lot of time — and cold, hard cash. Malcolm Turnbull can certainly sympathize. Australia’s new prime minister was shocked when he saw that the bill for refurbishing his official residence had skyrocketed well over budget. Repairs to the Lodge, a 1927 Georgian Revival-style mansion in Canberra, the country’s capital, had run amok. From The Australian: Mr Turnbull has told colleagues he was astounded that the repair bill...had cost taxpayers $11.6 million — four times the original budget. He has queried whether taxpayers received value for money and ordered an official audit, which is believed to have found significant variations in the price of contracts for the work at The Lodge… A delay by the former Labor government in starting the work cost an extra $1.1m. Under the Abbott government, the budget was increased by $3.9m, with decisions made to overhaul upstairs and downstairs bathrooms and a female dressing room, as well as to build new guard houses and a gardener’s shed. Finance Department secretary Jane Halton told an estimates hearing in February that every price increase had been the result of a decision made by politicians.
Turnbull and his wife, Lucy, took the unusual decision to dig into their own pockets and avoid any further charges to taxpayers. They paid AUD$130,000 (about $100,000) to finish the renovations. The Lodge, which has been closed for the past three years, was originally meant to be a temporary residence until a grander replacement could be built. This plan was scrapped over cost concerns — in the late 1920s.