Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question and for her tireless work for regional communities. Unlike those opposite, we on this side of the chamber, the Liberal-National coalition, are strongly supportive of regional communities. We are a government that wants to invest in those communities and to invest in their futures. We want those communities to have good jobs, high-paying jobs and better access to services.

Part of our commitment to growing jobs outside of our major capital cities is to look at opportunities to decentralise government agencies to rural and regional areas. We clearly took these plans to the 2013 federal election and we then went to the last election with specific relocation initiatives—relocations that we have now secured a clear mandate to deliver.

Some of the agency relocations that we have already commenced include: relocating the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation to Wagga Wagga; relocating the Grains Research & Development Corporation to Toowoomba, Dubbo, Northam and Adelaide; relocating the Fisheries Research and Development Centre to establish a southern headquarters office in Adelaide; and relocating the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Armidale.