LABOR Shadow Regional Services Minister Stephen Jones has called on the Nationals to prove their decentralisation policy is “more than pub talk” by allocating funding in next week’s federal budget.
It comes as a Fairfax Agricultural Media online poll revealed two thirds of respondents don’t believe the controversial relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Armidale, in Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce’s northern NSW New England electorate, will be of benefit farmers.
Mr Jones faced media in Canberra yesterday to say the junior Coalition partner must also back a moratorium on the axing of public service jobs in regional Australia, to prove it was serious about the government’s decentralisation push.
“For the last three months the National Party has been running around the country talking about decentralisation,” he said.
“It’s only seven days until the budget and if this is going to turn into anything other than beer talk then there are two things that the government has to do.
“The first is that they’ve got to immediately announce a moratorium on job cuts – government job cuts – in regional Australia.
“And the second thing they’ve got to do is put some real money in the budget to pay for decentralisation.
“It’s time for the Nationals to come clean.
“If this is going to be anything more than pub talk, there’s got to be a moratorium on job cuts and there’s got to be money in the budget.”
Last week’s Farmonline poll saw 65.64 per cent of 195 respondents answer ‘no’ to the question on whether the APVMA’s relocation to Armidale would benefit farmers.
Mr Joyce has defended the move, amid staunch opposition from industry groups, saying the relocation will see an agricultural centre of excellence created at the University of New England to train specialist regulatory scientists, for farm chemical approvals.
But groups like CropLife Australia and the National Farmers’ Federation have opposed the relocation fearing the loss of specialist regulatory staff members, that don’t want to move to Armidale, will further hinder the national farm chemical regulator’s ability to approve products to market in a timely manner, to maintain farm viability.
Mr Jones said the government’s “ill-fated” plan to move the APVMA to Mr Joyce’s own electorate had cost the tax payers $60 million.
He said the APVMA was an agency of almost 200 staff, as of June 2016, but its relocation had resulted in almost 50pc of staff resigning, including a significant proportion of highly trained specialists.
It would take up to seven years to rebuild the Authority’s workforce, he said.
Mr Jones said the Coalition government had to account for its decentralisation policy.
“The $60 million which is the cost of the APVMA move has to be in the budget, as well as, any additional money this will cost if they scale this plan up,” he said.
“And the Deputy Leader of the Nationals, Fiona Nash, has made it quite clear, that she wants a report in August from every government agency.
“How much is it going to cost?
“That money has to be in the budget, if it’s going to be anything more than pub talk.”
Mr Jones said since the Coalition government came to power, they’d consistently cut jobs out of regional Australia.
He said 200 jobs were “quite recently” cut in the tax office in Townsville and over 500 jobs had gone from Centrelink.
“And I can tell you, those regional offices were not spared in the process,” he said.
“So if the government wants to do anything more than handpick a few jobs out of Canberra, and move them to a regional town, at the same time as they’re sacking people in government jobs in those regional towns, they have to immediately call a moratorium on axing public sector jobs in regional Australia.”
Mr Jones’ office provided data saying in 2014, under the Coalition, the ATO was forced to close multiple regional offices located in Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Grafton, Port Macquarie, Orange, Bendigo, Sale and Launceston with about 150 jobs lost in the process.
It also said when the Australian Valuation Office was closed in mid-2014, almost 200 job losses occurred in Lismore, Bowral, Young, Wagga Wagga, Townsville, Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Geelong, Mildura, Bendigo, Hobart, Launceston, Perth and Darwin.
But Mr Jones said Labor was committed to creating jobs in regional Australia.
“Could you imagine what you could have done with that $60 million, if instead of trying to move a reluctant agency out of Canberra into regional Australia, and not create one job?” he said.
“Can you imagine what you could have done with that $60 million in my town?
“It would have gone a long way to job creation projects and much needed infrastructure, in a place like mine.”
Mr Jones said he was happy to see public sector jobs created in regional Australia and where there was an agreement, and where it is going to make “economic and financial sense” to have those agencies move to regional towns.
“If $60 million spent, without creating one new job is visionary, God help us,” he said.
“We have been willing to look at placing jobs in new agencies in regional areas in the past.
“When we created the National Disability Insurance agency, we placed that in Adelaide, because Adelaide at the time was going through an economic downturn.
“We’ll take it on a case by case basis.
“I’ve got to say, if you make jobs in Canberra the enemy of jobs in regional Australia, you’re not starting on the right foot.”
Mr Joyce’s office was contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.
Colin Bettles
Has been the Canberra Bureau Chief for Fairfax Agricultural Media since 2010 - survived the hung parliament - former media manager at Western Australian Cricket Association now covering national agricultural and rural issues in federal politics.
Has been the Canberra Bureau Chief for Fairfax Agricultural Media since 2010 - survived the hung parliament - former media manager at Western Australian Cricket Association now covering national agricultural and rural issues in federal politics.
