Barnaby backflip on taking our jobs
DEPUTY Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has wrongfully boasted the Federal Government would shift jobs from Geelong to the Top End, according to his office.
His office yesterday ruled out the prospect of job losses in Geelong, despite Mr Joyce saying the opposite when lauding a new $8 million biosecurity hub in Darwin on Friday.
“This facility at Berrimah will help replace some of the work we’re currently doing in Geelong,” he said at a press conference.
“So we’re moving jobs and work from Melbourne to Darwin, that’s a good outcome for the north.”
Mr Joyce also described the initiative, which involved $3.5 million in federal funding, as part of his Government’s decentralisation program.
The NT News paper first reported on Saturday that an undisclosed several public servants would move from Geelong to Darwin to staff the expanded hub at Berrimah.
However, after the Geelong Advertiser yesterday published an article about the development, Mr Joyce’s office revealed an about-turn.
A spokeswoman for the Deputy PM yesterday claimed the upgraded facility in the NT would not impact on staffing levels or even the workload at Geelong’s CSIRO complex.
Jobs would not be lost from the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, the spokeswoman said.
“The new infrastructure will also protect AAHL from inundation of diagnostic work in the event of a disease outbreak,” the spokeswoman said.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson reiterated the claim that no jobs would be lost in Geelong, saying AAHL remained a critical part of Australia’s biosecurity infrastructure.
Victorian Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said earlier the Federal Government’s decentralisation policy “looks like a three-card trick”.
“Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce ought to be moving CommCare to Geelong, not pinching the CSIRO and putting it in Darwin,” Ms Pulford said.
Corio MP Richard Marles also told Parliament yesterday that the Federal Government had moved on from neglecting Geelong to actively attacking it.
“It’s time we had a government that cared about Geelong, and not just about themselves,” Mr Marles said.