PM never stayed in luxury taxpayer-funded home

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has broken the lease on a $3000-a-week luxury Canberra home paid for out of the public purse that he stepped a foot inside.

But public servants will not reveal exactly how many it has cost taxpayers to cut the lease on the home picked before the election to house the Prime Minister while The Lodge underwent a revamp.

It was revealed during Senate estimates in November that the luxury home in the suburb of Forrest was chosen by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and paid for by the public at a cost of $156,000.

Bureaucrats were forced to admit neither Mr Abbott nor former prime minister Kevin Rudd had inspected the house before the lease was signed.

After winning the election, Mr Abbott chose to stay instead at the $110-a-night Australian Federal Police College, saying he had no intention to stay in the luxury home, although the public continued to foot the bill.

Labor has called the debacle an "outrageous waste" of tax payers' money.

It was also revealed in January that Mr Abbott had spent more than $120,000 refurbishing the Prime Minister's Sydney residence in Kirribilli, which included a $13,000 rug for the living room.

Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald
Author: Nicholas McCallum, Approving editor: Martin Zavan