The federal opposition has called on newly named Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to reverse a key decision of his predecessor and stop the relocation of the national pesticides authority.
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Deputy Prime Minister and former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has faced ongoing charges of political pork barrelling over the controversial move of the Australian Pesticides And Veterinary Medicines Authority to his own electorate of New England, while a pre-Christmas report found the authority may have to hire staff from overseas to avoid a drain on its skills.
Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon accused the government of trying to bury the report, calling on Mr Littleproud to reverse the forced relocation in the best interest of farmers and other stakeholders around Australia.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the business model prepared by external consultants Pegasus Economics showed out-sourcing and the importation of foreign workers was needed as the authority struggled to find the qualified staff in its new home of Armidale, in northern NSW.
"Since the announcement of the APVMA relocation by Barnaby Joyce in 2015, the APVMA has been bleeding staff and now will need to make drastic high risk operational decisions in a desperate attempt to make the failing relocation work," he said.
"New Agriculture Minister David Littleproud's first act must be to stop the forced relocation in the interest of our farmers and all those who rely on the APVMA.
"If David Littleproud fails that basic test, how can the producers of our food and fibre have any confidence in him?"
The authority has had a horror run of deteriorating performance levels in 2017 and confirmed it expects a "modest" number of its Canberra public servants to move to New England.
Chief executive Chris Parker has not ruled out hiring staff from overseas and said the best person for advertised jobs would be hired in Armidale.
Public service hiring rules allow overseas recruitment, with agency bosses permitted to hire non-citizens only when they are considered more appropriate than domestic job applicants.
The proposed business model also poured cold water on a staffing solution the agency has touted for its controversial move, saying remote-working staff who don't want to relocate from Canberra would be unable to take most of its roles.
The authority expects up to 150 employees will work from Armidale after its move finishes in 2019.
Staff for Mr Joyce have consistently ignored media requests related to the forced relocation of the authority, including from The Canberra Times.
Documents provided to the Senate showed Mr Burke became increasingly frustrated and said he had publicly defended Mr Joyce, but would be forced to go public if he did not hear back about the structure of a proposed five-person advisory body by July this year.
