Member for Orange Phil Donato has left his former Byng Street offices and set up shop in Lords Place.

The new offices at 194a Lords Place have far greater space, with multiple meeting rooms and better accessibility for wheelchair users.

The move had been coming for several years, Phil said, but as the office is a parliamentary asset it had taken time to find suitable premises that met all the right criteria.

“Apparently our old office was the second-smallest parliamentary electorate office that they had across the state,” Phil said.

“It took a long time to find something suitable, that ticked all the boxes... We’re still waiting on a few bits of furniture and bits and pieces, but overall it's a pretty nice office and our door is open!”

Much of the day-to-day work of an MP involves handling requests for assistance from local people, trying to solve these problems or advocating on their behalf.

You never know what is going to walk through your door each day, Phil said. 

“It's a fairly wide and varied role and we've had some pretty serious matters come through the door that have been very sensitive and confidential all the way through to really sort of minor type of matters,” he said

“It's really anything that's impacting on the constituents that they feel that they need assistance with or advice or guidance that we can represent them or listen to them, meet with them, try and sort out their issues or their problems.

“Whether it's roads, whether it's local government, whether it's health, education, transport… any state government-related issue.

“We can't fix everyone's problem, I never say I can, but at least I can be a sounding board, listen to people, see what we can do to help them. We certainly will try and we've had some good results and good outcomes over the years.”