LET’S not cry in our beer about decentralising the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Armidale, says Nationals leader and Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.
The Deputy Prime Minister faced media today on a tour of the SMART Farm at the University of New England in northern NSW, in his electorate, alongside Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Joyce was quizzed about the benefits of moving the APVMA from Canberra to Armidale and how it aligned with job creation in the town and the findings of a government cost-benefit analysis.
“I’ve never had anybody in Armidale complain about jobs coming into this town,” Mr Joyce said when asked if creating blue collar jobs was more preferable than white collar ones that go with the APVMA.
“When you think about it, and you can see that in the cost benefit analysis, there is an exponential benefit to Armidale and almost a microbial detriment to Canberra, which will grow in any case.
“Remember, we are spending more on the renovations of Parliament House, about four times as much as what it costs to move APVMA here so let’s not cry in our beer about it.
“Canberra is a beautiful city - a wonderful city - God bless Canberra.
“But let’s make sure that the largess of our nation and a vision of our nation goes beyond one town in our nation.”
Asked about the cost-benefit analysis findings and the APVMA’s regulatory scientists potentially not wanting to relocate, Mr Turnbull was upbeat.
He said it was “very important” to have more research and educational centres in regional Australia.
“The APVMA naturally, here, particularly with the connection with the University of New England is a very logical connection,” he said.
“But there are many powerful arguments for seeing more of our research outside of the big cities.
“It underpins the economies in regional centres, many of which have been challenged of course by the downturn in the mining construction boom - not so much an issue here but in other parts of Australia.
“Education, science, research can (all) provide a very good underpinning for regional economies.”
Mr Joyce said Armidale was at the “cutting edge” of research and development in the agricultural industry, having the University of New England which had a rural science department from which many APVMA workers had graduated.
“It has a rural science department that is actually developing the course for APVMA,” he said.
“It has the CSIRO, it has the breed societies.
“We have 7000 acres here that can be used for the research and development on some of those chemicals that are actually going to be required for approval.
“It is working in a dynamic form, so that people can work online in that approval process.”
Despite opposition from farming groups to the move, Mr Joyce said the government was “being dynamic” about the APVMA relocation and “we do have a vision”.
“We are not a government that is lacked of vision,” he said.
“We have a vision for centre for excellence, a vision for driving issues forward.
“Who do we find is the preeminent complainer about this? The Labor Party.
“What is their vision? Well, there is none.
“here is no vision from the Labor Party except commentary on our policy because we are the only ones with policy, we’re the only ones with vision and we’re the only ones driving things forward and we are putting runs on the board.”
Mr Joyce his government had overseen record commodity prices, for beef, sheep, cotton pork and sugar along with an expansion in the “actual volume and the price we are getting”.
“We can stand behind the reality of good government because we've actually delivered the real results, but a part of that good governance is you must have vision and you must have the courage to stand behind your vision,” he said.
“We do, we are going to have centres of excellence, and not just here for APVMA, but for Wagga with RIRDC (the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation), the Grains Research Development Corporation, part of which moves to Toowoomba.
“For fisheries, part of which moves down to Adelaide.
“We are doing this because we believe in the growth of our nation across our nation.
“The Labor Party believes in the parochial sentiment that we just stand still and go nowhere and complain about anybody who has an idea.”
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.
