Green leaves are bureaucratic delight ... at a cost of $1.7m

SIX of the Howard Government's biggest bureaucracies have agreed to shell out nearly $1.7 million on pot plants, with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's department the most lavish spender.

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Department in Canberra spent a staggering $137,200 last year on hiring happy plants - equivalent to the base salary of a diplomat and $26,000 more than a backbencher's wage.

The yearly spend on shrubbery for Mr Downer's workers is locked into a five-year, $686,000 contract with a lucky Canberra company.

The "big six" departments - which include Finance, Treasury and Employment - revealed in documents tabled in the Senate that they had committed $1.67 million to greening up their work areas. The two-, three- and five-year contracts started in 2004-05.

The details are contained in "Senate contract orders", hidden in the fine print of a dossier the size of a telephone book. Departments must detail all outside departmental contracts worth more than $100,000, although the Auditor-General found last month that many breached their obligations.

The Government's 17 major federal departments in Canberra will spend at least $5 million over five years on palms and elephant ears.

The amount spent by Foreign Affairs has stunned Labor's public accountability spokesman Kelvin Thomson, who will pursue the Government in Parliament over what he called an "obscene extravagance".

Finance splurged $284,000 over three years on office plants. Treasury, notorious for urging spending restraint on all arms of government and the community, splashed out $259,449 on a five-year contract.

Mr Thomson said the Howard Government had "overdosed on Dynamic Lifter" when it came to wasteful spending.

"Substantial taxpayer funds are being transplanted from policy and programs into pot plants," he said.

Plants for Parliament House aren't noted in the documents, but a source said it was the "biggest contract in town", worth between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.

The corridors of flora

2004-05 Senate contract orders for indoor plants by government departments:

 Foreign Affairs and Trade: $686,000 over five years.

 Finance and Administration: $284,000 over three years.

 Treasury: $259,449 over five years.

 Employment, Science and Training: $210,000 over two years.

 Communications: $105,000 over two years.

 Prime Minister and Cabinet: (including courtyard maintenance) $129,944 for an unspecified period.