PRIME Minister Tony Abbott won't be following the footsteps of revered Labor PM Ben Chifley.
THE pair have at least one thing in common.
Neither stayed at the official prime ministerial residence, The Lodge.The modest Chifley, prime minister from 1945-49, opted to stay at the Hotel Kurrajong to cut costs.Mr Abbott hasn't yet moved into The Lodge, which has been undergoing renovations.Instead he resides in the Australian Federal Police training college a short distance from parliament house.So why not move into the new look Kurrajong Hotel, a Canberra landmark within walking distance of Parliament House."I am not sure whether the current budget would run to it," Mr Abbott said at the launch of the newly renovated Kurrajong.He said his accommodation at the AFP college had been described as spartan, but he likened it to the family suite at a good country motel.He acknowledged the Kurrajong, constructed from 1925-27 as accommodation for public servants in the new capital, was part of Canberra's history."You can hear the whispers of the past. The walls are 90 years old. If they could talk they would tell such a story," he said.One whisper could be that of Ben Chifley who died of a heart attack in Kurrajong Room 205 in June 1951. Hotel legend has it that his grey-suited ghost can occasionally be seen.The Kurrajong was acquired by a joint venture of the NRMA and Toga Hotels Group in 2013 and has been undergoing renovation for the past six months.
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