Barnaby Joyce
June 25, 2017
A scathing audit of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has found the agency failed to consider the risks that its relocation to Armidale would pose to staffing.
The organisation assesses and registers agvet products and plays a key role in the Australian agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines industry, which has an estimated $3 billion annual turnover.
APVMA is currently based in Canberra, and has been losing staff at more than double the Australian public service average of seven per cent since the Federal Government announced it wanted to relocate the agency to Armidale in Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England.
The audit was carried out by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and was released last Thursday.
It found that AVPMA had failed to fully implement a series of legislative reforms that were introduced in July 2014 with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its regulatory activities, slashing red tape and reducing the cost burden on regulated entities.
ANAO found that while key legislated reforms were implemented by the legislated timeframe of July 2014, the full scope of the reforms had yet to be achieved, even though the agency had four years to tackle them.
“There is considerable scope for the APVMA to improve its management of major reform projects, particularly in the context of the Government’s decision to relocate the Authority over the next two years,” the ANAO report said.
The audit also found APVMA’s efficiency had dropped, especially since the relocation was announced.
Forty per cent of APVMA assessments examined by the ANAO were completed outside the statutory timeframes for decision-making, as the agency tried to process a growing backlog of work during 2016.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said ANAO’s independent assessment of the APVMA’s performance confirmed that, after years of poor performance, the regulator could no longer continue under its business as usual model.
“This audit finds significant weaknesses in how the APVMA has implemented the government’s 2014 agvet chemical legislative reforms and says the business practices, systems, risk management and governance arrangements employed by the agency are just not good enough,” Mr Joyce said.
“The report finds that the ongoing poor culture and governance arrangements have the potential to impact on future reforms and the success of the APVMA’s relocation to Armidale, not the other way around.
“The reforms we legislated in 2014 were developed as a result of thorough consultation with industry and were meant to reduce the cost burden on industry stakeholders and reduce the red tape.
“This report finds more than two years since that legislation came into effect measures to cut red tape, like introducing a risk-based regulatory framework, are yet to be implemented.
“I am really disappointed that the poor implementation of the reforms by the regulator has not delivered the more efficient access to safe, effective chemicals that industry urgently need and that’s why this government needs to take significant action to reform the APVMA.
“With new leadership and the APVMA’s relocation to Armidale, we now have a genuine opportunity to build an efficient and effective regulator of the future.
“I look forward to working with the interim Chief Executive Officer, Dr Chris Parker, to deliver long overdue improvements to the APVMA’s performance and improve access to agricultural and veterinary chemicals for Australian farmers.”
However, Labor regional spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said it was unfair of the auditor to scold the pesticides authority for being unprepared for the fallout from the Armidale relocation.
APVMA’s former CEO had warned the government about the consequences for staff numbers. Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“This information was totally ignored by Barnaby Joyce, who has always downplayed the impact that the loss of staff would have on the authority,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“Money and staff energy that should be invested into completing the reform program has been directed to try and stop the bleeding of expert staff caused by Barnaby Joyce and his pork barrel.”
CPSU deputy national president Rupert Evans called for the government to halt the relocation and warned the damage would soon be “irreparable”.
“It’s a little ironic that this audit report takes aim at APVMA for not properly considering the risk of wholesale staff departures in the wake of the relocation,” Mr Evans said.
“Because it’s blindingly obvious that Minister Barnaby Joyce didn’t consider those risks either, or didn’t care about the damage his decision would cause to Australian agriculture.”
The report’s findings and recommendations are available at ANAO’s website.
