More public servants to be moved: this time to Darwin

Mr Joyce said the public servants, understood to be from his Agriculture Department, will be shifted from Geelong and Melbourne to staff a new $8 million "biosecurity hub" in Northern Territory Capital.

It is unclear how many workers will be moved.

But the plan has done little to placate the Northern Territory Government which is still seething over the clear-out of the Australian Electoral Commission in Darwin

The AEC's decision, to move 14 of its 17 Darwin-based public servants to Queensland is part of trend that has seen the Northern Territory lose a higher proportion, 15 per cent, of federal public servants since 2013, more than than any other state or territory.

There were just 2,220 Commonwealth public servants working in the top end, at the last count.

But Mr Joyce, who has endured a torrent of criticism for his determination to forceably move the national pesticides authority from Canberra to his won electorate, was upbeat about the bio-security jobs.

"This facility at Berrimah will help us replace some of the work we're doing in Geelong, so we're moving jobs and work from Melbourne to Darwin and that's a good outcome for the north," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

"It's also an incredibly good outcome for how we further develop the cattle industry in the north, which has brought so much wealth into towns such as Darwin."

Previous moves to increase the Australian Public Service's presence in the territory have been patchy, with the Treasury saying in April it had been unable to find an official to work in Darwin for three month stint, despite advertising the posting twice.

The Treasury Secretary John Fraser told the Senate's Economics Committee that it was sad his agency's workers were not up for a "bit of adventure" in the top end.

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald went further, saying he wanted public servants sacked if they refuse to "get out of their very privileged lives" in Canberra Sydney or Melbourne and move to the regions.

A push, also in April, from another Liberal Party figure, Mike Reed of Regional Development Australia, to get hundreds of indigenous affairs bureaucrats from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to move to Alice Springs was ignored in Canberra where most of the department's workers are based.

The Northern Territory government, which is paying for most of the Berrimah bio-security installation, was broadly pleased with Mr Joyce's announcement.

But NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the decision on the AEC Darwin office showed the federal government had an attitude problem when it came to Darwin.

"We have massive issues of both [electoral] enrolment and turnout in the Territory," Mr Gunner said.

"We want to make sure everybody's voice is heard at election time and we are concerned that shift of staff from Darwin to Brisbane will impact on the capacity of people in the NT to vote and have their voice heard."

In Geelong, the news of moving jobs to Darwin was greeted with local Labor MP Richard Marles slamming the plan and Mr Joyce.

"That the Deputy Prime Minister is heralding a loss of jobs from Geelong as a win is breathtaking," Mr Marles said.