Senators have set their sights on Canberra's public servants

While we can all appreciate Ian Macdonald (LP) and Fiona Nash (The Nationals) love living regionally, it is harder to fathom why they don't respect other people's choices the same way they expect theirs to be.

Senator Nash, who has been spear heading the decentralisation push kicked off by Barnaby Joyce last year, can't believe people wouldn't jump at the chance to move to the country.

On Tuesday Senator Macdonald, who is on the record as saying politicians aren't "particularly well paid" and opposed the axing of the lifetime travel Gold Pass for former MPs, took a "my way or the highway" approach to the question of sending public servants north.

He told ABC Radio Darwin's Adam Steer if public servants refused to move to the northern capital they should get the sack.

While Senator Nash has yet to adopt that hard a line, she is of the view public servants working at agencies marked down for decentralisation under what appears to be little more than a pork-barrelling scheme should not be offered special incentives to relocate.

"Moving to the regions is the incentive itself," she told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia conference in Canberra.

"We've got cheaper rates, cheaper rents... a fabulous lifestyle (and) the person down the road's going to bring your dog back and if you get a flat tyre someone's going to help you."

It's unfortunate that the debate over something as important as the most efficient way to deliver government services has descended to the level of lost dogs.

While Senator Nash's description of the rural idyll is, by and large, on the money, her failure to realise not everybody is up for a politically mandated "tree change" that could be reversed the next time there was a change of government is a concern.

The former ministerial staffer, who worked for Mark Vaile, Larry Anthony and De-Anne Kelly from 1999 to 2004, is no stranger to Canberra.

She would have seen first hand how this community responded to the bushfire crisis with an outpouring of support that gives the lie to the suggestion you need to go bush to get good neighbours.

It would be timely for both senators to reflect on the fact that outside the defence forces there are few, if any, employers which can move workers around the country like pieces on a chess board.

In the private sector most relocations are dealt with through negotiation. Given both partners in most families now work it just couldn't be done anyway.

Many of the public servants likely to be targeted by decentralisation attempts are highly skilled professionals, well sought after in both the private and public sectors. Faced with a move they have no desire to make, many will simply leave, creating an inevitable brain drain on the public service as has already been demonstrated by the APVMA's relocation.

Senators Nash and Macdonald are either unaware of, or indifferent to, the fact most people have commitments to where they live that go well beyond their jobs. Faced with an ultimatum and wide range of alternatives in a city with skills shortages and low unemployment, many will simply look elsewhere.