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Moving public servants out of Canberra is "core business" for the Turnbull government, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says, and more of it is likely following the move of the pesticides authority to his seat of New England. In an interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Joyce said the Australian Pesticides and Medicines Authority's forced move had prompted political attacks from Labor but that "it is now resonating as one of the biggest positive things" he had done as Agriculture Minister. One of the greatest hurdles facing the plan to move the APVMA to Armidale is the objections of the public servants who work at the agency with just 10 of its 103 highly-trained regulatory scientists believed to be interested in moving their lives to the north. But Mr Joyce had a blunt message for public servants who have complained about the relocation, with the minister arguing the move had been in the national interest, while linking decentralisation to helping people to find affordable housing. "The more they [Labor] get excited about it, the more people not living in the cities think that's a good idea," he said. "If you want people to have a job where they can get a cheaper house, surely the jobs need to be where cheaper houses are. "I believe in decentralisation, I think it is core business, otherwise we will end up with just two big cities, one called Sydney and one called Melbourne. "We have to find a reason for people to live somewhere else. "The sooner Tamworth, Dubbo, Orange have a 100,000 people, or 200,000 people, you can take a little pressure off Sydney and Melbourne." In practice, he said, that meant "sections of departments - not a whole department, and where it can appropriately work" could be moved to the regions in the future. He brushed aside the concerns of the APVMA workers who did not want to go to Armidale, comparing his plan to the early days of Canberra. "People always say they don't want to go, they never do, they didn't want to go Canberra, before that they didn't want to go to Sydney from Liverpool," Mr Joyce said. "History is made by people not wanting to go somewhere. The APVMA move has attracted criticism from every lobby and industry group in the various sectors it regulates, including agricultural, chemical and veterinary medical groups. A cost-benefit analysis conducted by accounting giants Ernst and Young at a cost to taxpayers of $270,000, found the direct cost of moving the authority north will be $25.6 million, the benefits to the Australian economy would be "modest" and the advantages for the agency itself "limited". But Mr Joyce said he still believes his plan is good for Australia. "The action of a government with vision is not to ask people their personal opinion, it's to do what is good for the nation," he said.

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