He claims his intention, in insisting on the relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority to his own electorate, is to spread the "largesse" enjoyed by Canberra as the epicentre of Australian public service activity, around the regions.

This is ironic given he is arguably the second highest ranking member of an administration whose slash and burn approach to public service staffing stripped thousands of jobs out of rural cities and has made it much harder for country people to access government agencies and services.

Despite having spent many years around the corridors of power, first as a Queensland senator and, in more recent times, as the member for New England, Mr Joyce hasn't grasped the rationale behind the establishment of a free-standing Australian Capital Territory more than a century ago.

One of the hot button issues during the federation debate was the internecine rivalry between NSW and Victoria and their capitals, Sydney and Melbourne.

Melbourne was the bigger, more populous and richer of the two. Sydney was the oldest.

It quickly became apparent Sydney politicians would never brook what Mr Joyce has quaintly described as the "largesse" that would flow from being anointed national capital going to Melbourne or vice versa.

The logical compromise was to create a capital territory that would bring together the executive, administrative and judicial arms of government and allow the bureaucratic machinery necessary to steer the ship of state to be centralised.

It was a win-win in that Melbourne became the de facto capital and seat of government until a new city could be established on a greenfields site to be located within the borders of NSW.

Even better, once the new capital was up and running opportunities for individual members to "pork barrel" their own electorates using voters' money would become far and few between.

While that problem was never entirely eliminated, few politicians have brought as much single mindedness and sheer gusto to the task of using other people's money to buy popularity on the home front as Mr Joyce is prepared to do.

His apparent belief key departments and agencies are spoils of war and can be relocated at will as bribes and rewards by the victors in the triennial electoral contest displays a disturbingly naive and unimaginative approach to the challenges of government.

Under Barnaby's rules it would be perfectly okay if, two or three years from now, an incoming Labor Government chose to relocate the APVMA again, this time to one of its own marginal electorates.

If the Deputy PM is genuinely concerned about the future of cities such as Armidale wouldn't he be better off working to develop sustainable industries, utilising regional strengths and taking advantage of the 21st century communications revolution, in rural population centres?