{"id":584346,"date":"2026-08-29T21:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584346\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T21:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:43:06","slug":"premier-house-final-costs-yet-to-be-released-after-upgrades-labour-asks-whats-being-hidden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584346\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier House: Final costs yet to be released after upgrades, Labour asks what\u2019s being \u2018hidden\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Herald reported in May<\/a>, it was estimated that more than $1 million had been spent on the works, including replacing its roof, buying new furniture, and painting interior and exterior walls. <\/p>\n

However, Labour\u2019s latest attempts to find out what has been spent over the past financial year have come up short. <\/p>\n

\"AA 2015 file image of a main function room in Premier House. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister responded to a question by saying the final costs could not be released because of the DIA\u2019s year-end processes.<\/p>\n

Labour has taken issue with this, asking what Luxon is \u201chiding\u201d and referring to it as a \u201chidden bill\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cPremier House needed work; the least Christopher Luxon can do is come clean about the bill,\u201d Labour campaign chairman Kieran McAnulty said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders shouldn\u2019t have to wait until after the election to find out how much Christopher Luxon has really spent on Premier House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luxon\u2019s office reiterated a previous comment to the Herald that it had made clear to officials that remediation should be \u201cat minimal cost\u201d. However, final decisions were \u201coperational matters\u201d for the DIA. <\/p>\n

The DIA told the Herald it would publish the final costs \u201cas soon as practicable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe remedial works project at Premier House has recently been completed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis project involved a broad and complex programme of works that were required to address critical repairs of parts of the property that had significantly degraded. As previously reported, this has included roof replacement, cladding repairs, and a full exterior repaint. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the project has recently concluded, the department is completing the final reconciliation, assurance and verification activities needed to confirm the total project cost. Releasing a figure before these processes have been finalised could result in information that is incomplete or subject to revision.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Christopher Luxon’s office wanted work done at a minimal cost. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t the first works at Premier House. Labour\u2019s Chris Hipkins approved the continuation of security upgrades <\/a>and repairs when he was Minister Responsible for Ministerial Services in the last Government. It was reported at the time that those upgrades could reach nearly $3 million over five years. <\/p>\n

About $180,000 worth of maintenance and other work was undertaken before Luxon moved into the house. That included everything from painting to air conditioning installation and a Sky TV connection. <\/p>\n

Luxon didn\u2019t stay at the house when he first became Prime Minister. He instead opted to stay in his apartment across the street from Parliament, saying maintenance was needed at Premier House. He eventually moved into the house in the second half of 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In 2023, an independent report from the Premier House Board said<\/a> the property needed \u201curgent investment\u201d to \u201carrest the decline\u201d in its condition and \u201cto conserve the heritage fabric of the property\u201d. <\/p>\n

That report estimated that a full refurbishment would cost $33m \u201cto address immediate heritage, seismic resilience and functional and performance requirements\u201d. Long-term maintenance would cost about $1.3m a year or $27m over 20 years. <\/p>\n

However, it was reported last year that the DIA was not going ahead with the $33m refurbishment option, instead choosing a smaller programme of remedial work. <\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Herald reported in May, it was estimated that more than $1 million had been spent on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,74,31036,5195,682,16574,138,16426,40834,8615,46618,802,5904,538,10053,6721,16427,6722,9812,111,139,69,14730,415,13181,1361,61,32632,14605,102,9184],"class_list":["post-584346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-after","tag-asks","tag-be","tag-being","tag-bill","tag-business","tag-christopher","tag-clean","tag-come","tag-complaining","tag-costs","tag-final","tag-hidden","tag-house","tag-labour","tag-luxon","tag-minister","tag-needs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-premier","tag-prime","tag-released","tag-that","tag-to","tag-upgrades","tag-whats","tag-with","tag-yet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}