Australian taxpayers reportedly paid nearly 60 million yuan for the upgrading of government officials' offices.
More than half of that money was spent on upgrading 26 offices, including 4 million to renovate Melbourne's CBD office.
A spokesman for the department defended the frenzied spending, saying it needed to upgrade its properties to enable it to use the department.
"Human Services manages the country's largest portfolio of non-defense properties, most of which are made up of a network of customer-oriented service centers," he told the Sun Herald.
Other government departments also squandered taxpayers' money.
The Melbourne office of the Ministry of Employment and Innovation now has a kitchen that costs 210643 yuan to build and 37,999 yuan to set up a "tea room."
In Canberra, the prime minister's office and cabinet headquarters bought four $1500 salsa chairs and a $2200 wooden coffee table.
The Ministry of Environment and Energy staff reportedly owned two new 6000-yuan treadmills and 40 Sanming machines, while the Ministry of the Interior purchased one hundred and forty thousand nine hundred and ninety nine yuan worth of new white goods.
Blinds are also installed in one department's office, while another is now closer to the gym, thanks to a taxpayer contribution of three hundred and thirteen thousand yuan.