It would seem a lot of people are on here defending the indefensible. It is not as though the people of New England came to Joyce and said they wanted that particular department in their electorate. The running was all done by him and he had to bring in a new regulation to make it happen.

I do not have a problem with orderly decentralisation. If there was a structured move based on the recommendations from an independent appraisal of the cost/benefits then it would get my vote. This was none of that, it was an extremely hasty decision based on rank self interest. It will mean stripping the department of much of its talent with 85% of the staff flagging they will not be moving. This will no doubt set the organisation back many years and the cost to the taxpayers will be considerable.

Public agencies change their accommodation often and there are almost as many instances of senior bureaucrats refusing locations and office space that was not to their perceived status and taste. They fight like a cage of neurotic cats over plumb locations. A move away from Barton or Parkes, "Quelle horreur!".

Incrementalism is often the key to successful public policy. Barnaby Joyce has done well and the only questions are:

- why has it taken so long; and,

- why haven't other Ministers had a word with their Sir Humphreys?

The question should be why was nothing done when
thousands of public service jobs in the regions have
been slashed since the Coalition came to power and the
Nationals were doing nothing that would seriously address
the economic decline of those regions. Communities were
hit hard on Mr Joyce's watch by the substantial cuts
across essential areas like bio-security, Centrelink,
Medicare, the Tax Office, Defence, and CSIRO.

Where were Mr Joyce and his colleagues and why where they
silent in 2015 when the Australian Taxation Office shut
offices in Port Macquarie, Sale, Mackay, Bendigo, Rockhampton,
Launceston, Cairns, Orange, Toowoomba and Grafton?

How will moving the APVMA (Australian Pesticides and Veterinary
Medicines Authority) relocation to the bush help the agency -
and agriculture when many of its experts have stated that they
will not be moving? Of course one can argue that this move
to push out of Canberra and to regional centres (mostly in
National-held electorates) is a blatant vote-getting grab.
But who will it really benefit?

Foxy, SR,

Still silence on the $150m Juliar spent on buying Tony Whinger's vote in parliament? I thought you would duck that one.

Secondly, the job of the APVMA would appear to be at best be duplicating the work done by other research centers across the world. That this bunch of 100 geniuses have taken 22 years to approve and register 75 chemicals is a disgrace. Simple maths indicates that the waiting list of 300 chemicals that are top priority will take nearly 100 years to clear.

A simpler solution would have been to fire these pinheads and largely adopt the findings of the US or EU, but moving the dept to a real farming area is nearly as good, with most of those bureaucrats grown fat on the taxpayers in Canberra resigning. Perhaps the new members will come with an understanding of the meaning of "top priority".

Dear Shadow Minister,

The facts speak for themselves.

The future will show whether Mr Joyce's plans will
translate into good positive action for agriculture
or whether it will remain the same old same old
that we've seen thus far.

I wouldn't hold my breath on this one. Mr Joyce
appears to be interested in only one thing - staying
in power for as long as possible.

He just may have a surprise in store at the next
election - as the voters in WA have shown Canberra.
Don't mess with us!

cont'd ...

What has Mr Joyce actually done for regional and rural
areas - does anybody know?

I've read that he's spent $32,000 of taxpayer's funds
wining and dining agricultural industry contacts at
top Australian restaurants. Entertaining useful contacts
is fine but does it require such over the top gestures?
And what in reality will that achieve? Surely the
agriculture industry contacts already know what is in
their interests to do or not do. It is a two-way street
after all. Lavish entertaining is so yesterday.