Commonwealth Parliament Offices (MaPS state and territory offices)

Commonwealth Parliament Offices (CPOs) are located in the capital city of each state and the Northern Territory.

CPOs are managed by MaPS state office and territory teams. They provide a range of services, support and advice for federal parliamentarians and their staff in all the electorate and ministerial offices across their state or territory. 

Most CPOs provide permanent office accommodation to federal ministers or other office holders. There are various suites, meeting rooms and conference facilities at every CPO. These are available on a short-term basis to all federal senators, members and their accompanying staff for parliamentary business. See office types and office resources for more information. 

MaPS also manages the Ministerial Wing in Parliament House.

Telepresence facilities

The National Telepresence System (NTS) is a secure, high-definition, digital videoconferencing system managed by the Department of Finance. 

The NTS operates on the Ministerial Communications Network, and connects federal, state, and territory governments, DFAT and Defence, and all commonwealth ministers and departmental secretaries. The System enables Telepresence (TP) meetings between government entities up to, and including the security classification of SECRET, and can be utilised by government staff of all levels. 

There are TP rooms at Australian parliament house and at every CPO. Book online to check availability and secure a TP room.

Bookings

Details for booking CPO visiting suites are available in the pre-arrival guides, below. Block bookings spanning a period of more than four weeks (for example: every Friday for a period of six weeks) will not be accepted. If a booking is no longer required, you must cancel the booking promptly.

A senior office holder who is a member of the Opposition or leader of a minority party whose office holder office is located in a CPO cannot book additional visiting suites in that particular CPO. Employees may only use CPO visiting suites when accompanying their employing parliamentarian.

Security

You are asked to ensure that:

• visiting suite and building keys (or swipe cards) are returned to MaPS immediately on departure
• visitors, including media, are accompanied at all times within the CPO. MaPS staff and security staff based at CPOs are not responsible for escorting visitors to and from visiting facilities booked by parliamentarians.

Where parliamentarians who have a permanent office in the CPO, or their staff, enter the building after hours, care should be taken to ensure building security is maintained and other persons do not ‘tailgate’. 

Any suspicious circumstances should be reported as soon as possible to MaPS, or in the case of Melbourne and Sydney, to on-site security officers.

Visitors

Names of visitors to the CPO are required to be submitted to MaPS prior to the day of attendance. Upon presentation at reception, the visitor may be required to sign in with their name and time of arrival in an attendance book.

Some CPOs require attendees to wear a visitor pass. Upon departure the visitor must return the pass to reception.

Media conferences

Parliamentarians may reserve a room to conduct a media conference by contacting the relevant MaPS state or territory office. You cannot book these facilities for the use of other groups or individuals. The facilities are solely for media conferences conducted by parliamentarians.

Media will be required to show identification and may be required to sign in their name and time of arrival in an attendance book. Access to other areas of the CPO is restricted. Members of the media will be escorted directly to the media room.