While agriculture, resources and water minister, Joyce has faced his fair share of scrutiny

For National party MPs, avoiding conflicts of interest, or the appearance of potential conflicts, can be trickier than for most – and for the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, even more so.

They often know everyone in the town. Decisions in traditional National party portfolios of agriculture, land and water management can have a direct impact on the politician, their families, their mates or political supporters.

During his time as agriculture, resources and water minister, Joyce has faced his fair share of scrutiny.

One of the most contentious decisions he made was to relocate the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) to Armidale, in the heart of his New England electorate from Canberra.

Joyce defended the decision this week in parliament as part of his policy of decentralisation. He said he made no apology for moving jobs to Armidale.

The decision has seen a mass exodus of staff, including the chief executive, and many of its scientists. As of May last year, one in five positions was vacant, the new chief executive, Chris Parker, confirmed at an estimates hearing.

As of January he said the organisation would have a staff of 15 with a target of 35 staff by mid-year in Armidale.

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The APVMA is now in the final stages of a tender for a new office of about 2,000 sq metres in Armidale. A spokeswoman said it was currently negotiating with the preferred tenderer and could not reveal the names of those involved.

At that size, the office will either require a refurbishment of an existing property or building a new one. That will be good for Armidale’s economy and locals have hailed Joyce’s decision.

Its also proved a boon for Joyce’s benefactor Greg Maguire, who is providing Joyce and his new partner, Vikki Campion, with a rent-free townhouse in Armidale.

As the owner of the largest and most upmarket hotel in Armidale, the Powerhouse Hotel, Maguire has seen a steady stream of APVMA employees staying there.

An APVMA spokeswoman said staff travelling to Armidale were paid a daily travel allowance, which they then chose how to spend, and that the Powerhouse was one of the suppliers on the government’s list. There was no preferred supplier, she said.

APVMA Records showed about $14,700 had been spent at the Powerhouse Hotel since August 2016.

Then there is the land Joyce owns at Gwabegar, near Narrabri, where there are several petroleum exploration licences for coal seam gas held by Santos and others.

Santos is building a gas plant at Narrabri and has announced plans for a pipeline from Narrabri to join the Moomba Sydney pipeline at Warren.



According to the website, “Santos estimates the proposed Narrabri gas project has the potential to supply up to 50% of the natural gas needs of more than 1.1 million homes and 30,000 business and industrial customers in NSW.

“Accordingly, the Western Slopes Pipeline has the potential to significantly increase the supply of natural gas to the NSW market and play a key role in helping the state achieve greater energy security and economic sustainability.”

The preliminary alignment shows it passing within 15km of Joyce’s property.

Joyce has denied buying the land in 2006 and 2008 knowing that there would be gas exploration in the region. Most of the early exploration was undertaken by Eastern Star Gas, a company that at one stage had the former Nationals leader John Anderson as its chairman. Eastern Star has now been taken over by Santos.

In 2005, Eastern Star revealed it had already spent $50m exploring the Pilliga, mainly around Narrabri, since 2001.

Joyce’s property at Gwabegar lies inside the “petroleum exploration licence” (PEL) areas that Eastern Star owned the right to explore. Gwabegar is on the edge of PEL 238 and PEL 428, co-owned by Eastern Star with a company called Comet Ridge.

Local environmental activists regularly queried whether Joyce had a conflict of interest as resources minister.

In 2013 Joyce told Fairfax Media he had “no knowledge at all’’ that the Pilliga would be at the eye of the CSG rush when he bought his land.

He said: “I’m happy to sell it, it’s for sale ... If someone wants to take it off my hands and make a million dollars, go right ahead.’’

He also said he had instructed a local land agent to sell if he could get the right price.

He told Fairfax Media he understood the ownership could be “viewed as a conflict of interest’’.

But nearly four years later the property is still listed on his pecuniary interest register and remains owned by Joyce and his wife, Natalie, from whom he is separated, according to NSW land titles records.

Meanwhile the federal government has announced it wants the states to allow more coal seam gas mining and threatened to punish financially NSW and Victoria over their bans and strict controls over gas mining.

When Malcolm Turnbull did a press conference last September calling for fast-tracking of Santos’s Narrabri gas project, Joyce, the resources minister, was not at his side.

The next day, Joyce said he would not allow coal seam gas extraction on his land though in practice often it is difficult for landowners to restrict exploration and mining on their property because the minerals below the surface are not owned by the landholder.

States have regimes under their mining acts that govern how and when a miner may gain access and these are part of the very laws the Turnbull government says are too strict.

Joyce has described his property on the edge of the Pilliga scrub as “mongrel” country. In interviews over the years he has talked about growing wheat and running cattle and sheep. But most agree its tough farming country.



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He has told journalists that he spotted it driving to Moree and bought the land because it was all he could afford. “My motivation was plain and simple – it was what I could afford,’’ Joyce said. “I came from the land and I want to go back to the land after politics.’’

Then there is the Inland Rail project, championed by the Nationals as a way of boosting the economies of rural towns along its 1,700km route. Joyce is now infrastructure minister.

According to the most recent maps, dated December 2017, the line would pass south of Gwabegar, within 10km of Joyce’s land.

Joyce’s office has been contacted for comment.



