Upgrade for Premier House long overdue

Not many New Zealanders see inside the residence they provide for Prime Ministers. If they did, their response to the news of a $3 million upgrade might be quite different from the predictable chorus normally heard whenever parliamentarians appear to “feather their own nests”. In fact it is fear of that very reaction that has caused Premier House to be such poor accommodation for a head of government.

Premier House, as the name suggests, is an historic place. It was the residence of Prime Ministers from a time they were called “Premier” until the 1930s when Michael Joseph Savage decided it would be better used as a dental clinic. It was restored for its original purpose in the 1990 sesquicentennial but primarily as an historic place rather than a residence fit for its purpose today.

The “residence” is in fact a flat on the second floor of the building. It looks comfortable enough for a night’s sleep and a morning cup of coffee in a sunny sitting room if the day has dawned fine in Wellington. But previous occupants have not used it for more than that, if they used it at all. At weekends they returned to real homes where their partners and families preferred to live.

The state rooms of Premier House are downstairs. They might have been stately when the Thorndon mansion was bought for premiers in 1865. But the 1990 restoration tried to be too faithful to history to be worthy of state receptions now. Its 19th century interior is plain, cold and unwelcoming. Yet this place is used for the Prime Minister to receive other countries’ leaders and for receptions as grand as we can manage. Surely we can do better.

The $3m upgrade, as we reported on Wednesday, will mainly provide and maintain better security as well as repair some normal deterioration. The minister now responsible for its condition, Chris Hipkins, said, “It’s in a pretty run-down state and I think at some point we’re going to have to look at some reasonably significant maintenance at Premier House.”

He is right, so why not now? Its current resident is a Prime Minister with a baby. Jacinda Ardern’s partner and child cannot stay at their home in Auckland during the week as families of previous occupants did. There would seem no better time to turn the house into a real home. Politically, it might be easier for a Labour-led government to do this. A National government is more vulnerable to the sort of criticism Hipkins himself levelled at the previous Government in 2011 when it dared spend about $275,000 on some fresh paint, carpets and blinds. “Every Kiwi family struggling to pay the bills knows if you can’t afford to pay for dinner, new carpet and curtains for the lounge get pushed a long way down the list,” he said.

Cheap criticism has made governments afraid to improve Premier House for too long. They should ignore it and give us a place of pride.