ENTIRE federal bureaucracies like Treasury or the Agriculture and Water Resources Department won’t be uprooted and removed from capital cities like Sydney or Canberra out into regional areas.
But the Agriculture and Water Resources Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce says the Coalition’s expanded decentralisation push will now examine which sections of or functions of government departments can qualify for a new location, beyond the city limits, where housing is more affordable.
Mr Joyce addressed media last week amid ongoing criticism of his vexed decision to move the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Armidale, in his northern NSW electorate of New England, to create an agricultural centre of excellence combined with the local university.
He denied the fresh policy expansion announced by Nationals deputy leader and Regional Development Minister Fiona Nash also last week during her National Press Club address, where cabinet ministers will scrutinise their government departments on whether they’re suitable for relocation, was pork barrelling, as has been the federal Opposition’s ongoing criticism of the APVMA relocation.
Mr Joyce said a “vision for your nation” rather than an independent cost-benefit analysis - like the one applied to shifting the national farm chemical regulator, which said the economic gains of moving to Armidale were “modest” - was the main imperative underpinning any relocation decisions.
He also sought to downplay rising speculation about potential decentralisation options that could see entire federal government departments relocated to the regions along with large numbers of public servants, including his own Department.
“I don't think we’re going to be moving the Agriculture Department (out of Canberra) - I’ll just put this one to bed,” he said.
“But there will be sections maybe within the Agricultural Department - such as what we’re doing with the (Murray Darling Basin Authority) - that could be considered.
“That’s precisely what we're doing and that is not unusual.”
Mr Joyce said “obviously” the vast majority of the federal government like the Taxation Department, Treasury and Finance, “are going to be in Canberra”.
“The idea that the largesse of government should be widely spread more widely across the government; it should not be an anathema,” he said.
“The regions from which the taxes come from - from your coal, iron ore, from your grain, cotton, your beef and wool, from all those things - they deserve a bit to go back out to regional areas as well.”
Mr Joyce said four times more money was being spent on upgrading Parliament House in Canberra - $100 million - than the cost of moving the APVMA to Armidale.
“Never lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of (taxpayer) funds will still be spent in Canberra,” he said.
Mr Joyce said the Coalition was now going through a process, working with the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, to see what other “mechanisms” can be used to relocate government departments, not just from Canberra, but also Sydney, Melbourne and “other places and even to the outer suburbs”.
“I have no doubt that Canberra will grow - it’s going to grow and it’s going to grow flat out,” he said.
“If the vision we’ve got now for places such as Armidale and Toowoomba and for places such as Albury…was lacking in 1900, there would be no Canberra.
“Canberra would be called Melbourne because that is where the parliament would be.”
Asked what the government’s main imperative would be for deciding which government departments or relevant sections or functions would be relocated, Mr Joyce said “a vision for your nation” and “a direction for your nation”.
“We don’t need a parliament if all you’re going to rely on is a cost-benefit analysis,” he said.
“We can all just retire and go home and let KPMG run the show.
“We are not moving whole departments - let's put that one to bed.
“We’re not going to be moving the Treasury Department to Albury - that’s obvious.”
Mr Joyce said if everything was premised “purely and solely” on a cost benefit analysis,
Canberra would not exist.
“It certainly would never have passed the cost benefit analysis in 1913 – it just would not have happened and this great city, incredibly beautiful city wouldn't be here,” he said.
“(Cost-benefit analysis is) something that has to be considered but it’s not going to be the sole determinant that rules the outcome.”
Mr Joyce also hit back at the Labor Party’s criticism of his party’s decentralisation plans saying the NSW State Labor government had moved the Minerals Department from Sydney to Maitland
“I didn't hear the Labor Party complain about that,” he said adding that it made sense to move that agency to the Hunter Valley where mines were situated.
Last week Senator Nash and Mr Joyce also called on business groups to look at ways to expand the location of corporate entities, into regional areas.
Senator Nash said by mid-year - in consultation with others - she would create the criteria for government ministers to assess which departments, functions and entities in their portfolio were suited to decentralisation.
She said all portfolio ministers would then be required to report back to the federal cabinet by August on which of their departments, functions or entities were suitable.
Departments will need to actively justify if they don't want to move, why all or part of their operations are unsuitable for decentralisation” she said.
“Relevant ministers will be required to report to cabinet with those robust business cases for decentralisation by December,” she said.
“It's important for government to lead by example and invest in rural, regional and remote Australia.
“Creating long-term careers and breeding confidence in those communities and we're doing it.”
Mr Joyce said people should understand there had been some “hyperventilation by certain areas” on the APVMA relocation issue and “I think it is for parochialism”.
“We want to see where we can have an apt and symbiotic connection such as something that’s dealing with pests, for plants, veterinary things for animals being in an area such as Armidale which has a university that deals overwhelmingly with plants and animals,” he said.
Mr Joyce said a recent poll had shown that people “recognised strongly” that moving to a regional area like Tamworth, Albury, Toowoomba or Rockhampton “where houses are more affordable” was a great way to have an affordable house.
“Big business has to decide if they want to decentralise from Melbourne or from Sydney into the regional towns,” he said.
“The government has a role to play too, to find mechanisms or parts of government that would work in regional areas such as the APVMA to Armidale.”
Mr Joyce has already backed moves that have seen sections of the Grains Research and Development Corporation moved from Canberra into regional areas dominated by grain farming; the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation shifted to Wagga Wagga; and parts of the Murray Darling Basin Authority also decentralised to improve stakeholder engagement in delivering the Basin Plan.
“This is part of a process and shows our government doesn't just talk about it; we actually do it,” he said.
“By so doing, we allow people the opportunity to get closer to a house they can afford to pay off.
“This is all part of a vision for our nation.”