Fisheries agency lifts lid on new office

For a fleeting moment, a stunned senator thought the fisheries authority was setting up its newest office in a toilet.

Australian Fisheries Management Authority officials appeared before a Senate inquiry on Tuesday, answering questions about their new base in Lakes Entrance on Victoria's southeast coast.

"Did we get that right? We're leasing a lavatory and refurbishing it to an office?" Labor senator Alex Gallacher asked during the estimates hearing.

"That's what we've done," AFMA corporate services general manager John Andersen confirmed.

A flabbergasted Senator Gallacher chuckled in disbelief as he looked at his fellow committee members.

"The only space we could find is a used area which was previously a lavatory?" the senator asked.

That prompted the crucial correction - the office is in a former laboratory - which prompted an outbreak of laughter in the hearing room at Parliament House.

"I think we just made an important clarification," Liberal senator Richard Colbeck said.