Elegant new furnishings will surround Cabinet with style

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 9 December 1975, Page 27

Elegant new furnishings will surround Cabinet with style

< By

CEDRIC MENTIPLAY,

our Parliamentary reporter)

WELLINGTON. , M Me P’^ rs of Sir Job” -Marshall’s Cabinet of 1969-72 who return to the Cabinet this week *ill have an unexpected Christmas present. Thev Will be pleasantly surprised at the extent of refurbishment of their Ministerial accommodation.

Never before has such a large Cabinet been so elegantly housed on Parliament Hill. The reconstruction and extension, which became necessary during the National administration because of the demolition of the old wooden building to make way for the Beehive, never seemed to end.

Throughout the last three years there has never been a time when the marble building” which carries the main functions of Parliament did not echo to the sounds of hammer, saw, and drill. Ministerial space was cramped even before the old vice-regal building (which carried four suites) was demolished. The completion of the “south wall” of the marble building during National’s time added some needed suites. Somewhat surprisingly, even these have been further redecorated, their new carpets replaced by newer ones, and their demountable partitions shifted about.

Spartan rooms The total cost of work! performed over the last several years must run well into seven figures. It has included such items as provision for the extra men in a large Cabinet of 20 Ministers and three Parliamentary Under-Secretaries — a total of more than onequarter of the complete Parliamentary roll; the improvement of the extra accommodation needed for extra typists and Ministerial press

, officers; the improvement of existing accommodation so that each member of Parliament might have his own 'office: and the large-scale refurbishment of the Speaker’s suite. By comparison, the accommodation of the National Ministry was Spartan, the staff provision inacfequate, the members’ rooms substandard. Perhaps National Government members were

love r-conscientious about spending large sums of public money catering to their . own creature comforts — but nobody could accuse the , Labour Government of this kind of parsimony. So the sound of hammers and saws, begun in National . times because of the urgent need to replace lost accom- ■ modation, went on and on. Ministers were able to display their individual flair for interior decoration. Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan’s suite took on a Moorish look, with curved archways and draped elegance. Mr A. J. Faulkner inherited a “room at the top” with a magnificent awning-style ceiling. Others had their choice of shag-pile modern or maroon-carpet and timbered stateliness. Everyone has benefited from the planning of the last few years — and the buildings have taken on various annexes and excrescences. Perhaps the most impressive is a modern structure on what used to be the roof, with a front access to the second floor and a rear access almost straight into the Chamber. This is for Government members. Beehive rises The Opposition is located, as always in the post-World War II arrangement, in and around the old General Assembly library building. This, however, has spread out a little. First, there is a complete annexe, finished in knotty pine and noted for the complete democracy of its sound-effects. (“On a quiet night you can hear old Mick changing his mind three rooms away,” a denizen once told me).

Grafted to this is the Oppoi! sition’s version of the Gov■emment’s new-member acicommodation, noted for its : maroon carpeting, darkI timber furniture, and planned window-spacing. But some of ithe top Opposition men in •11972-75 preferred the high’ceilinged, battered stateliness

of the upper-storey of the old library building.

The 1975 election may have Terminated this refurbishment. The “beehive” is now rising to its upper stories, which will carry Ministers’ suites as well as other conveniences. Fortunately from an accommodation viewpoint the ratio of Government to Opposition will be about the same — though allegiances are reversed.

The new Opposition will have space to spare. Doubtless, as happened in the last three years, the extra rooms will fill up with typists, research officers, and the like, in a Parliamentary version of Parkinson’s law — but there will be space. Possibly the next problem will arise when the General Assembly library building is demolished, as it will be when the rising National Library Building across Molesworth Street is completed. The beehive plainly will not expand as the old building has. Nobody has yet discovered how to build an annexe on to a circular building.