Decentralisation inquiry not headed to Armidale

But a public forum will be instead go forward in Townsville, while the first hearing into the controversial Coalition policy plan kicks-off on Tuesday next week in Canberra.

Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce has come under sustained fire for moving the APVMA from Canberra to Armidale in his electorate, to establish an agricultural centre of excellence at the University of New England.

But the Nationals leader has returned fire, and backed by his party, has urged contributions to the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee’s inquiry from stakeholders, to promote the social and economic benefits to local communities, of shifting government agencies to their regions.

Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie had sought the inquiry that she’s also participating on, to be held in Armidale to ventilate positive community views and not just complaints about the APVMA move.

However, she said despite local councils also supporting the hearing in Armidale, the Committee did not back the idea and a compromise was made to hold a hearing in Townsville which wasn’t her suggestion.

“Given the issue we’re examining, it would have been beneficial to hold a hearing in the place where there’s the most scrutiny and which has the most relevance to the substance of this inquiry,” she said.

“I put the case to the Committee but it was voted down.

“It would also have been great to have more hearings in the regions, rather than just one in Canberra, to hear more from the people and communities that actually support decentralisation.

“It can be very easy for city-based politicians to not recognise the benefits of a policy like decentralisation, to our rural and regional communities.”

The APVMA will be one of several witnesses appearing at the Committee’s first hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.

CropLife Australia, the National Farmers' Federation and Animal Medicines Australia will also give evidence and have all opposed the APVMA relocation, amid fears it will cause significant job losses and an exodus of technical expertise that’s needed to approve and register farm chemical products to market without risky and costly delays.

Representatives from Mr Joyce’s Department and the Department of Finance are also due to appear.

As of Friday, the inquiry - that’s currently due to report on budget day, May 9, after being commissioned in mid-February - has published almost 200 public submissions.

The Nationals campaign to promote the benefits of decentralisation to country areas is understood to have gathered about 800 submissions based on a form letter signed by contributors.

But the individual contributions won’t be made public and nor will the final number carry any additional weight for the inquiry’s ultimate considerations on final recommendations.

NFF CEO Tony Mahar’s submission to the inquiry said farmers are the strongest advocates for living outside of a city and supported decentralisation – but it continued to have reservations about moving the APVMA to Armidale.

“The NFF supports the intent of initiatives designed to strengthen rural and regional communities through relocating government agencies to regional areas, thus creating jobs and providing financial injections to rural economies,” he said.

“However, we are also conscious that some jobs are best done in the cities.

“It is critical that the relocation of an agency does not result in ongoing disadvantage to the sector.

“For example, the NFF continues to have reservations that the relocation of the APVMA will have a negative impact on services, performance and business continuity.

“If current rates of approval of agvet chemicals decline, Australian farmers will be at a disadvantage in the global market place by not being able to access state-of-the-art agvet chemicals, thus being unable to benefit from the on-farm productivity and efficiency gains that could be realised by using said chemicals.

“This is, and remains a major concern to the farming/agricultural sector.”