Press conference in Armidale, NSW

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
ARMIDALE, NSW
WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL 2024

SUBJECTS: Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority; Albanese Government's Preliminary Response to the Rapid Evaluation into the APVMA; APVMA to remain in Armidale.

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Well thanks very much for joining me here today in Armidale in a beautiful autumn morning. Today I'm very pleased to advise that the Albanese Government is taking the next step to ensure that we have a strong, independent, credible regulator for agricultural chemicals in Australia. Today, as I say, we're taking another step to build a better, stronger APVMA by releasing the rapid evaluation into the structure and governance of the APVMA, as well as the Government's preliminary response to that review.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority is a very important national institution. It's our national regulator of agricultural and veterinary chemicals and medicines and it decides which new chemicals our farmers can get access to, while also ensuring the safety of our food and fibre. We want the APVMA to be strong, independent as a regulator, and we want it to be a great place to work.

Unfortunately, under the National Party, the APVMA did lose its way. You might recall a few years ago, Barnaby Joyce, the then-Agriculture Minister, unilaterally moved the agency to his local electorate, resulting in a loss of 90 percent of APVMA staff, and staff having to work out of the local McDonald's to access wi-fi. That kind of chaos and disruption resulted in a poor workplace culture, some appalling allegations of personal misconduct, and too much emphasis being placed on quick approvals of pesticides, while reviews of other chemicals to ensure their ongoing safety, dragged on for nearly 30 years.

The release of today's review by Ken Matthews is significant, and I want to thank Mr Matthews for the work that he has done. I also want to thank the APVMA's new management team and its staff for their dedication through what has been a very difficult period. And I particularly acknowledge the efforts of the acting chair of the APVMA, Steve Jeffries, and the acting CEO, Melissa McEwen, who are here with me today.

While the Government supports or accepts, in principle, most of Mr Matthews' recommendations, there are some that we don't support, and we won't be implementing. Importantly, the APVMA will remain headquartered here in Armidale, not moving back to Canberra, as was recommended by Mr Matthews.
The APVMA will remain independent, not moved into the Department of Agriculture, as was recommended by Mr Matthews. And we will not abolish the APVMA board.

I think it's very important that our Australian national regulator of agricultural and veterinary chemicals is independent of government and is seen to be independent of government.

However, in an attempt to ensure that we do always get the best people to work at the APVMA, we will be following Mr Matthews' recommendation to remove the restriction - the only one of its kind in the entire public service - which forced workers to be based in Armidale. Already, nearly 40 percent of APVMA staff are based outside Armidale, but it is my expectation that the majority of workers will remain here in Armidale at the organisation's headquarters.

Today's announcement, I think, provides certainty for the workers here in Armidale, the community generally, but it also provides certainty for the agricultural sector and certainty for the wider Australian community. It also sets a platform to ensure the APVMA retains its integrity as an independent regulator, free from inappropriate government or industry influence. Already, I have issued a new ministerial statement of expectations for the APVMA, which strike a more balanced approach to its responsibilities, long-overdue chemical reviews have been brought forward, and the APVMA has issued a new value statement regarding its workplace cultures, and they're just some of the things that have already been done to address some of the issues identified in Mr Matthews' report.

So today's release of the review and our response to it in a preliminary form, builds upon the significant action that's already been taken by the APVMA leadership and our government, to improve the culture at the APVMA. We'll have more to say on this in coming months, as we finalise our response to a number of other recommendations from Mr Matthews. We'll continue to implement further reforms, and we will appoint a new substantive CEO and Board Chair in the coming months as well.

I'm happy to leave it at that, and welcome Mayor Sam Coupland, as well, who obviously I spoke with yesterday afternoon. So I might leave it at that at the moment, but I'm happy to take questions as I'm sure are Steve and Melissa as well.

JOURNALIST: Do you want to do questions now? Minister, when you say 40 percent of people live - work outside of Armidale, can we have maybe a bit more of a definitive number, like how many work in Armidale here?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah I can get you the exact numbers, but, in essence, there's about 60 percent of the APVMA's current staff who are based here in Armidale. The remainder are based either in Canberra or other remote locations. The vast majority of that other 40 percent are based in Canberra with a relatively small number based in other locations as well. But happy to come back to you with the exact numbers. 

JOURNALIST: And why was it important, you know, some of the recommendations you didn’t, you know, you haven't agreed to - why is that?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so as I say, the way we've tried to approach this is to ensure that we maintain the APVMA as a strong independent regulator. That's important for this community, it's incredibly important for our agricultural sector going forward as well. My concern with some of the recommendations, particularly about moving the APVMA into the Department of Agriculture in Canberra, is that it would risk losing the independence of the APVMA that is so vital for it as an organisation. I think it's important that the APVMA be independent and be seen to be independent. I think the best way of doing that is by making sure it remains as an independent statutory authority, and that it maintains its current location here in Armidale. The other issues in terms of remaining here in Armidale is that, as I mentioned, I think we all remember some of the chaos and disruption that occurred when the decision was first made by Mr Joyce to relocate the APVMA to his electorate. I think a lot of good work has been done, including in particular by the new senior management, to try to rebuild the APVMA. I don't think it's in anyone's interests to have a repeat of the chaos and disruption that we saw under Mr Joyce. I would like to think that we're a mature, adult government, who makes the best decisions for the best reasons rather than what works for us politically. I think this is the best way forward for the APVMA.

JOURNALIST: Eventually in the future, if people do decide to work in Canberra, would the APVMA here officially relocate to Canberra? Could that be on the cards?

MURRAY WATT: No. As I say, we are making a deliberate decision to keep the APVMA headquartered here in Armidale. I've got a report that recommends it be move back to Canberra. If I wanted to do that, today would be the day to announce that. We are saying exactly the opposite. We want the APVMA to remain headquartered here in Armidale. This building that we're standing in still has 10 years to run on its lease. The APVMA is going to be here for a long time, and I recognise that there's been a lot of work done by the new management to forge some really strong connections with the University of New England as well, based here in Armidale, to ensure that there's job opportunities for some of their graduates in scientific and other areas. So keeping it here in Armidale makes sense and avoids that chaos and disruption that we saw last time around.

JOURNALIST: And will the CEO be located here as well?

MURRAY WATT: Yes, so we - I will hand over to Steve Jeffries, the Chair of the board in a minute- Acting Chair, but from my perspective, there is a recruitment process under way for a new substantive CEO. That job has been advertised as being able to be based in either Canberra or Armidale. As I say, my view is that we always want to get the best people for the job with the best skills. There are many federal agencies where CEOs live in different locations to where many of their staff live. The way the federal public service operates is that it operates in multiple locations. But I can say that my expectation is that whoever is the new substantive CEO of the APVMA will spend a substantial portion of their time here in Armidale.

JOURNALIST: And obviously, you know, with the report last year, we heard, you know, significant complaints about management, and complaints about employees and the situations that they've been put in. Will managing people from now on be a big priority, in making sure they're OK?

MURRAY WATT: Not only will it be a priority from now on, but I think it's been a priority for the new senior management team for some time. I was shocked by some of the allegations that I heard about some of the behaviour of senior management in particular, and some staff here at the APVMA. I want to be clear, the vast majority of APVMA management and staff have been great public servants doing their best work, but unfortunately, there were some terrible incidents and terrible allegations of misbehaviour that needed to be dealt with. There's been a lot of work undertaken already by the new senior management, as I say, to issue new value statements and expectations to staff to fix complaints processes about misbehaviour and things like that, and I think the APVMA is now on a good path and that's the way we want to keep it.

JOURNALIST: There was a concern that the APVMA was too close to the industry, what will be done about that?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that was also one of the significant concerns that was uncovered, particularly through the Clayton Utz report that I released a few months ago, and the words that Clayton Utz used were that they were concerned about a level of ‘industry capture’ around the approvals of chemicals. As I say, I think the steps that we're taking to maintain the independence of the APVMA will go some way to ensuring that that sort of thing doesn't go on. But when you have a chance to read Mr Matthews' report, you will see that he's made a number of other recommendations around what the performance indicators are for the APVMA, how they deal with their different stakeholders. I think there is still some work to be done in that respect and that's exactly what we will be working on now with the APVMA. But as I say, I can see evidence that there's already been a lot of improvement in that regard in the last few months.

JOURNALIST: And just lastly, do you have maybe concerns that some people will decide to move to Canberra instead of Armidale because of these allegations that they've heard in the past?

MURRAY WATT: I certainly hope that that doesn't occur. As I say, the fact that I've come here to Armidale, I think indicates that our Government believes in Armidale, we believe in regional Australia, we believe in this institution, and we want to have the best possible workplace for people, and we want to have the most respected regulator that we possibly can. I would encourage anyone, with the kind of skills and interests that the APVMA is looking for, to apply for jobs here. It's a great organisation. You get to make a real difference for our country and, as I say, I think the actions that have been taken, both by our government and the new management, have made it a much better place to work than it used to be. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, how can the APVMA be assured that they're going to have enough staff to deal with what the grain grower group says is an alarming number of approvals for chemicals that are outstanding?

MURRAY WATT: Well I've seen some criticisms by some groups around the timeframes for approving chemicals, and the first thing I'd say is that if you look at the most recent data from the APVMA, it shows that one of the most recent quarter, 94 percent of chemicals were approved within the timeframes that they're expected to be approved within. So that's a pretty good performance overall. It is true that there are some chemicals and some types of chemicals that have been taking a little bit longer to go through the approval process. I might point out that sometimes that's about issues here at the APVMA. Sometimes that's about issues with the applications that are put forward by people seeking approvals. If people put forward incomplete applications, it's not a surprise that it's going to take a little bit longer to get those approvals fixed.

The other point is that we have made a conscious decision - and in fact I gave the APVMA a direction, I think the first that it had ever received from a minister - to bring forward the reviews of chemicals that in some cases had been going for up to 27 years. It is not acceptable for Australians to have to wait that long to have chemicals reviewed, to ensure that they remain safe, that they remain effective. And unfortunately, what you will see in Mr Matthews' report is that he found that resources had been shifted by the former management of the APVMA towards processing new applications quickly at the expense of doing those reviews. And he also made the point that that was partially because of the direction that the APVMA was given by Mr Joyce as the then-Minister. What we're trying to do is strike a balanced approach where the APVMA can, independently of government, approve new chemicals as quickly as possible because we want our farmers to have access to the latest technology to do their jobs, but we also want to make sure that we uphold public health and environmental health. We want to be known for clean, green produce all around the world. We don't want to sacrifice that image and it's about getting that balance right going forward.

JOURNALIST: So do you believe the APVMA has enough staff at the moment?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I mean, that's an ongoing discussion with the APVMA and you will see in Mr Matthews' report that he has also made some recommendations about the future funding of the APVMA and that may involve costs to industry. As I understand it, the fees that the APVMA charges are very competitive. In fact, very cheap by worldwide standards. But equally, Mr Matthews has made some arguments about the need for more government funding. They're the kinds of things we'll be considering now and consulting with industry on going forward. 

JOURNALIST: Is there going to be a focus of getting more staff back into the office and not working remotely?

MURRAY WATT: That might be a matter I should hand over to Ms McEwen as the acting CEO.

MELISSA McEWEN, APVMA ACTING CEO: One of the first changes that was made following the change in management was to bring staff back into the office more. So we have staff working at least 50 percent of the time currently in the office. And that's been a deliberate move to try and re-establish and rebuild a positive culture within the organisation and we think it has helped in doing that. 

JOURNALIST: How have you found getting staff here in Armidale?

MELISSA McEWEN: In some cases we are very effective at recruiting staff in Armidale, and we already have a well-established group of science and regulatory experts within the offices in Armidale. The area that we have struggled a little bit, are some of the more specialised kind of government-focused jobs, regulatory legal expertise is not something you necessarily find in Armidale. It's difficult to find at all, but we've had to recently fill a couple of positions in Canberra because that was only option. And, similarly, some other really specialised areas like government procurement have been a challenge. 

But, overall, we have a really strong Armidale-based work force, and we'd like to work further with the community and look at how we can leverage our unique position of being here to get science graduates who are finishing at UNE and have fallen in love with Armidale and want to stay.

JOURNALIST: Since management has changed, has the recruitment process changed as well?

MELISSA McEWEN: Well we've made sure that we are undertaking recruitments in accordance with APS values, and we also have, in some cases, opened up positions to be advertised in both Armidale and Canberra where they might have only been advertised in Armidale before. But usually that's only happened where we've struggled to find applicants in Armidale.

JOURNALIST: Too easy, thanks.