Barnaby Joyce has ruled out moving entire departments from Canberra in the Turnbull government's latest decentralisation push, meaning public servants face being split off in individual agencies and divisions.
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National Party MPs led by Regional Development Minister Fiona Nash have cheered moves to force all federal departments to justify their continued presence in Canberra and other capital cities or face a forced move to rural or regional Australia, while Mr Joyce played down opposition from ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja and Labor on Thursday.
Suggesting the forced moves of public servants was an effective way to ease housing affordability problems in big cities, the Nationals' leader and Deputy Prime Minister also talked down the value of economic modelling and cost-benefit analysis studies in government decision making.
He ruled out moving the Australian Taxation Office and the departments of Treasury, Finance and Agriculture from Canberra, arguing "the largess of government" should be shared with regional communities and citing the controversial forced relocation of the Australian Pesticides And Veterinary Medicines Authority to his own electorate of New England as an example.
Mr Joyce denied the plan was pork barrelling to assist Liberal and National MPs win marginal rural electorates.
"We won't be moving the Treasury Department to Albury. That is obvious," he said. "There is some hyperventilation by certain areas and I think it is for parochialism."
"We will have a consistent position, we are actually decentralising and the Labor Party are fighting against us.
"The Australian people do recognise that this is a way that a young family or individuals who want to get a better opportunity, have the prospect of paying off a house where the house is vastly cheaper and they are vastly cheaper in regional cities."
Mr Joyce said the majority of the federal government would remain in the capital, currently home to about 57,500 public servants, or 37.5 per cent of the federal bureaucracy.
Senator Seselja has criticised the government's plans, saying departments shouldn't have to "waste time justifying why they should stay in Canberra". He called for public servants to be relocated from Sydney and Melbourne instead of Canberra.
Ministers will be given until August to report back to Cabinet on which of their departments, agencies and other entities are considered suitable for relocation, with Mr Joyce and Senator Nash warning they will be expected to "actively justify" why any agency is unsuitable for relocation.
Business cases are expected to be with government by December.
The cost of moving the pesticides authority with fewer than 200 public servants to Armidale has been estimated officially at $26 million, but Labor says it might cost up to $60 million.
Mr Joyce wouldn't say how many jobs or organisations would be moved.
"We are going through a process and we will be working with the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and to see what other mechanisms can be used for movements but not just from Canberra, from Sydney, Melbourne and other places and to the outer suburbs."
Opposition spokesman on regional services Stephen Jones told the ABC the government had cut thousands of public service jobs in rural and regional areas since coming to government.
"In Townsville alone, in the tax office, they have cut 200 jobs since 2014.
"I am all for creating opportunities in regional Australia but the government should lead by example and that involves a moratorium on cutting jobs in regional Australia before they consider moving jobs to regional Australia," he said.
