Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the Finance and Public Administration References Committee report Operation, effectiveness, and consequences of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Location of Corporate Commonwealth Entities) Order 2016. Here we have the report into the government's decision to move the APVMA from Canberra to the University of New England in Armidale and, with it, start a centre of excellence in regulatory science which will not only assist in skills shortages within the APVMA itself but also assist with state government bodies that are similarly experiencing skills shortages when it comes to regulatory scientists.

This committee was set up essentially as a ruse for Joel Fitzgibbon to pursue the Deputy Prime Minister over false claims of pork-barrelling, and the conduct of the inquiry itself and the report as you read it similarly bear that fact out. This was nothing more than a political exercise by the Labor Party, who would not know regional Australia if they fell over it.