For­mer Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter Allyson West has dis­missed claims that White­hall is "un­fit for use", in­sist­ing the his­toric build­ing re­mains struc­tural­ly sound and op­er­a­tional, with re­pairs con­fined to its base­ment.

“White­hall con­tin­ues to func­tion as the of­fi­cial Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter,” West said, not­ing it host­ed Cab­i­net meet­ings un­der both Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Stu­art Young SC.

She con­firmed that drainage is­sues were iden­ti­fied in the base­ment dur­ing the 2024 rainy sea­son and are be­ing ad­dressed as part of rou­tine main­te­nance.

“The is­sues were iso­lat­ed to the Cab­i­net Sec­re­tari­at. The rest of the build­ing re­mains in ac­tive use,” she added.

Works in­clude im­proved wa­ter­proof­ing, plumb­ing, and ac­cess points, with a pro­ject­ed cost of $4.5 mil­lion. UDE­COTT was en­gaged to car­ry out the re­pairs.

“It may well be that the re­al is­sue is the cur­rent Cab­i­net’s size,” West said, call­ing for na­tion­al dis­cus­sions to be “ground­ed in fact and con­text.”