Senator David Bushby is close to signing a contract on a Launceston-based office following a squabble amongst the Liberal state senate team over office locations last year.
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Senator Bushby was formerly based in the South but decided to move Launceston despite Senator Stephen Parry’s refusal to relocate from the city to the North-West Coast.
Each senator is assigned an electorate in which to do constituency work and Braddon was left without a senator when Richard Colbeck failed to get re-elected.
It is understood that Senator Bushby will move into an office block on Paterson Street, formerly owned by The Examiner.
He said he believed following the federal election, he would be best-placed to serve the state in the Bass electorate.
Senator Bushby said the Special Minister of State had provided in principle approval for the office location and the Finance Department was discussing lease arrangements.
An new office fit-out generally costs above $320,000.
Senator Jonathon Duniam in November took up a North-West office lease left vacant by Mr Colbeck last year after a months’ long stand-off within the senate team.
The Devonport office will serve as a base for the Tasmanian Liberal senate team, Senator Duniam said at the time. The lease was due to expire in 2020, costing $88,000 a year.
Senator Duniam has since set up a visiting office in St Helens and New Norfolk but said most of his time would be spent on the road visiting people around the expansive Lyons electorate.
Seventeen serving Tasmanian federal politicians claimed $1.6 million in office expenditure costs from the taxpayer in the first six months of 2016.
Senator Parry billed taxpayers the most for office facilities costs between January and June at $103,547.
Denison independent Andrew Wilkie claimed $132,721 in office administrative costs – $32,000 higher than the next most expensive MP Julie Collins.