Fitzgibbon: still time for Turnbull to intervene on APVMA relocation

The controversial policy move was thrashed-out today at a public hearing in Canberra of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee’s inquiry into the government order underpinning the controversial APVMA relocation.

Farm groups repeatedly warned that decentralisation of the national ag-vet chemical regulator would see significant staff losses, resulting in a risky slow-down in approval process due to the loss of technical expertise, which would strain industry viability.

Groups like the National Farmers’ Federation urged government and industry to work together to help implement a plan with the APVMA, to mitigate the risks associated with losing an anticipated 90 per cent of the technical experts who oversee the regulator’s approval processes for farm chemical products.

But speaking to media in Canberra during a break in the hearings alongside Committee Chair and NSW Labor Senator Jenny McAllister, Mr Fitzgibbon said he did not accept the APVMA relocation was “a done deal”.

“I am not going to sit back, and the Labor Party is not going to sit back, and allow $60 million of taxpayers’ money to be used just to shore up Barnaby Joyce,” he said in accusing the Nationals leader and Agriculture and Water Resources Minister of pork barrelling by moving the APVMA into his New England electorate.

“Particularly when it is going to have such an adverse impact on the agriculture sector and others in the community.

“This is not too far advanced to stop it.

“No capital expenditure has yet been outlaid as I understand it.

“There is time for Malcolm Turnbull to intervene and say ‘nice try Barnaby Joyce but enough is enough’.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said rather than the estimated $26m, he believed the relocation cost would be in the order of $60m by the time Mr Joyce rolled out a “digital plan”, to allow APVMA staff to work from their homes in Canberra, rather than move to Armidale.

“We are reminded today that the workforce of the APVMA has all but been destroyed,” he said.

“There’s something like 90 per cent of expert scientists and regulatory lawyers unprepared to move to Armidale and of course we heard from expert witnesses that it will take up to, if not more than, seven years to rebuild the APVMA’s workforce.

“That is bad news for all stakeholders and is certainly bad news for the agriculture sector.”

The APVMA is set to be co-located at the University of New England to create an agricultural centre of excellence, according to Mr Joyce’s plan.

Senator McAllister said the inquiry was also revealing evidence of “workaround, arrangements” that would allow APVMA employees the capacity to stay in Canberra and work from home.

“It’s a workaround that would require a significant investment in digital capability, an investment that is yet to be costed,” she said.

Senator McAllister said evidence of the “workaround” from witnesses at the hearing meant only 120 APVMA staff would actually move to Armidale.

“Even if you accept the premise that we ought to dismantle this entire organisation to benefit one town in one part of rural Australia, in one person’s seat, the jobs moving there are going south day by day,” she said.

“This is really the hallmarks of a policy that was not thought through, is being made up on the run and is going to have very serious implications for the functioning of the agriculture sector.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said the federal government was spending $60m and threatening the livelihood of farmers “all to save Barnaby Joyce in his own electorate; that’s the only possible explanation”.

“Barnaby Joyce keeps talking about decentralisation - I don’t hear Malcolm Turnbull talking about it,” he said.

“We heard from one witness today who suggested that some of the big multinational companies which supply crop protection and veterinary medicines might just give the Australian market a miss because it was all too hard.

“Imagine the impact that would have on the agriculture sector in particular.”

Senator McAllister said nobody had given evidence, at the hearing, that a move to Armidale in any way assisted the APVMA in improving its capability and “that is the real concern”.

“Most of the witnesses indicate their concern that the move will substantially diminish their capability,” she said.

“Imagine if you took the budget allocation for the relocation and applied it to improving capability and performance in the APVMA.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said the $60m was also taxpayers’ money, at a time when Malcolm Turnbull was saying “budget repair is so important”.

“Imagine how many mobile phone towers, roads and bridges $60m could fund in rural and regional Australia?” he said.

“Instead Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce are just throwing that money up against a wall.

“Government doesn’t fund the operation of the APVMA – it is industry which funds the APVMA - it is a fee for service arrangement.

“They should have at least been consulted before Barnaby Joyce decided to save himself and pack the organisation up for Armidale.”

National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) AgVet Chemicals Taskforce Chair Reg Kidd and NFF Rural Affairs Manager Mark Harvey-Sutton expressed support for decentralisation as an overall policy, like other farm-related stakeholders.

But the NFF representatives also raised warnings about the APVMA’s loss of regulatory staff and expertise delaying the approval of ag-vet chemicals and subsequently, straining farm-gate returns.

Mr Kidd conceded the industry had held long-term concerns about the APVMA’s regulatory performance and the relocation posed an opportunity for a “new model” to help it operate more efficiently and effectively, by embracing the “digital world”.

Asked if 90pc of the APVMA’s staff won’t move to Armidale and its performance would decline, whether the relocation funds would be better spent on reforming the regulator, Mr Kidd said an internal review had been a catalyst for change.

He said part of the APVMA’s new business model was looking at digital technology, working from home options, the use of external contractors and the use of over-seas data sets that are “really, really critical in this game”, to perform chemical registrations.

Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie has also requested that a public hearing be held in Armidale, saying it had also been supported by council submissions to the inquiry, but it was rejected.

Instead, a hearing will be held in Townsville, Queensland on a date yet to be determined.

The Senate inquiry was commissioned in early February and is currently due to hand down its report on May 9 – but it’s understood a request will be made to extend that date out another month.

Senator McKenzie said Townsville had 2000 public servants and a lot of evidence had been presented to the committee that public service jobs were valued right across the community, not just cities.

The NFF also agreed with her proposition that more regional public hearings should be held, during the inquiry.

Senator McKenzie was also outnumbered by three other Labor Senators also sitting in on the inquiry hearing today.

She also said 85 regional councils had made inquiry submissions and called for more public hearings to be held in more country locations, to hear stakeholders’ views about the positives of moving public service jobs out of metropolitan areas.

But Senator McAllister said at this stage the Committee only had time for at least one regional hearing.

“Townsville is one of the regional centres that we do think may be eligible for consideration under the Administrative Order as it is currently drafted and we are interested in seeing what stakeholders there think,” she said.

“We also had a number of representations from stakeholders in Townsville seeking a hearing in that city.”

Asked why Armidale wasn’t chosen for a hearing, Senator McAllister said “essentially there are more regional centres in Australia than Armidale”.

“I think we have got a fairly clear indication that of course a relocation of this kind would benefit the city that benefits from it but there are many regional centres that so far haven’t received this kind of investment and I think it is important to hear from those centres as well,” she said.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Mr Joyce had “perpetrated a hoax” on hundreds of regional communities by leading them to believe somehow they could benefit from the APVMA relocation or another agricultural entity, when his own policy is that they can only go to four cities - Townsville, Rockhampton, Wagga Wagga and Armidale.

“Interestingly beyond that, those other three cities had no opportunity to bid for the APVMA – so it is a hoax on all of these regional communities perpetrated by a guy to shore himself up in his own electorate,” he said.

Labor Senators also vigorously questioned witnesses on why the APVMA relocation should go ahead, despite the modest potential economic gains, for the Armidale community, as highlighted by the findings of a government commissioned independent cost-benefit analysis.

Labor ACT Senator Katy Gallagher questioned why the cost-benefit analysis report failed to provide a conclusion, to define its findings.

CropLife Australia CEO Matthew Cossey said he was confident the APVMA was looking to address all issues concerning the relocation but was “not confident” all of the potential risks could be mitigated, like the capacity to retain expert regulatory staff.

He said his group’s members had a “very specific interest” in minimising disruptions, during the transition phase.

Mr Cossey said CropLife’s immediate response to the cost-benefit analysis was that it identified all the concerns his industry had and was “surprised” by the $193 million per year estimate in losses it outlined, due to delays in crop chemical product registrations.

Animal Medicines Australia President Andrew Mason warned veterinary medicine producers had expressed a desire to go overseas to invest due to the Australian market’s uncertainty, not just due to the APVMA relocation but also red tape costs.

He said AMA’s members’ products were key inputs that supported $60 billion in Australian agricultural production and a $12.2b pet industry.

“While AMA anticipates working cooperatively and collaboratively with the government to support a smooth transition from Canberra to Armidale, we are concerned at the impact that relocation will have on the assessment timeframes,” he said.

“We anticipate a significant decline in veterinary medicine assessment performance in the very near future.”

To support a smooth transition, Mr Mason said early investment in significant upgrades to APVMA digital infrastructure was needed and the development of regulatory science capability in partnership with the education sector and industry.