It's Canberra's most prestigious address and has just undergone nearly $9 million in renovations.
But one Labor MP has his suspicions new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull won't be that impressed when he walks into The Lodge.
"I can imagine the conversation he'll have with himself," Ed Husic told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday before channelling the prime minister.
"You know what, if Tony Abbott can do it tough in an AFP (Australian Federal Police) bunk bed, I'll do it tough here.
"We've got the Kirribilli weekender residence in waiting so that he can see how the other half lives."
Mr Turnbull lives in a harbourfront mansion in the Sydney suburb Point Piper, and in Canberra has an apartment in Kingston overlooking Lake Burley Griffin.
The Lodge, a short walk from Parliament House, is nearly 90 years old and has undergone serious renovations over the past two years, costing taxpayers $8.8 million.
Works included replacing the slate roof, refurbishing the kitchen and bathrooms, re-wiring ageing electrical systems and removing hazardous material such as asbestos and lead paint.
Design experts have long called for the a new prime ministerial residence better befitting the nation's leader to be built on a site already set aside near the lake.
Former prime minister Julia Gillard has told of having to distract foreign leaders from possum urine running down The Lodge's dining room walls while she lived there.
Share
