Abstract Knowledge of the barriers and coping strategies for retrofitting government buildings for energy efficiency is essential for the success of these types of complex retrofitting programs. This study utilised thematic findings from two focused groups consist of government employees from two States within Australia to create a comprehensive list of barriers to retrofitting public building stock for energy efficiency and associated strategies to address them. Thematic analysis revealed that a lack of political will, financing protocols, department/agency capability, industry capability, quality assurance and misaligned incentives, are the key barriers to public building energy efficiency retrofitting projects. To address such barriers, research revealed that a government championed top-down approach is required. A key strategy identified was enabling government departments and agencies to take on debt to fund retrofit initiatives that would derive returns, in terms of reduced energy utility costs, over the short-medium term. Other important strategies included having a mandatory energy efficiency retrofitting policy, dedicated financing mechanism, flexible procurement model, facilitation team and list of pre-qualified professionals.