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The "political self-interest" of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is driving the move of the pesticides authority from Canberra to his own northern NSW electorate, a Senate committee has found. The Labor-Greens dominated committee wants the move stopped until a review into the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority is complete. The report of the committee, published in Canberra on Friday, also reveals that the APVMA itself told Mr Joyce nearly two years ago that Toowoomba in Queensland would be a more appropriate choice if he insisted on forcing agency was forced to relocate. The committee's recommendations are not binding on the government and a dissenting report, by Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, was expected on Friday but had not been produced by deadline. Mr Joyce has persisted with the relocation, as part of the National's signature 'decentralization' push, despite the cost, conservatively put at between $23 and $34 million, the objections of the authority, much of its workforce workforce and near universal condemnation from the agricultural and veterinary sectors. The minister's office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. A cost-benefit analysis that found the tens of millions of dollars in expense to the taxpayer for little or no benefit also failed to deter Mr Joyce in his determination to push ahead with the move. Now ,the committee wants changes to Commonwealth finance and procurement laws to demand more accountability from ministers in such circumstances. The committee reported that more than half the APVMA's staff, 96 workers out of 172, have left since the relocation plans came to light in 2015, causing a huge loss of corporate knowledge and leaving the authority unable to meet key timeframes. The authority's Chief Executive Kareena Arthy gave evidence that it was 'proving challenging' finding new recruits who were prepared to move to Armidale. Ms Arthy herself defected to the ACT Government's public service in April after a number of public pronouncements on the move that are understood to have angered Mr Joyce's office. After considering the evidence about the looming damage to the authority's operations from the Armidale move, the committee found the relocation is going to leave the APVMA unable to function. "Put simply, it is the committee view that the APVMA is not going to be able to function effectively for a considerable period as a result of this move," the report states. The Toowoomba option also came in for criticism; despite the Queensland town being raised by Mr Joyce himself PVMA early in the process. The senators simply did not believe that anywhere other than Armidale, which is in the heart of the Deputy Prime Minister's New England electorate, was considered seriously despite Ms Arthy telling Mr Joyce Toowoomba would be more suitable than his own electorate. "The committee received no evidence that other regions were consulted or provided with the opportunity to compete for the APVMA," the committee wrote. "Toowoomba....appears to have been dismissed very early. "The lack of clarity regarding the decision-making process and the absence of a transparent selection process leads the committee to conclude that there is only one obvious driver for the decision, and that is political self interest." The committee wants the move of the APVMA be paused until a review of the authority's business model is complete and a broader Parliamentary inquiry, by both houses, into the "merits of decentralisation". The government, which is not bound by any of the recommendations, has three months to respond.

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