Up to 50 jobs at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will move to Coffs Harbour under the government's latest decentralisation push, but it is yet to be decided how many will be relocated from Canberra.
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Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Decentralisation Minister Bridget McKenzie made the announcement in the coastal NSW town on Friday, with 69 jobs in total to be created in regional areas, including a new office in Airlie Beach.
"AMSA provides a frontline service for Australia’s maritime industry. Last time I looked there weren’t too many boats or ships in Canberra, so it makes it sense to have services such as this based in the regions, where they are needed most," Mr McCormack said.
A departmental spokesman said the jobs in the Coffs Harbour office would not all come from one particular division, and would include a mix of front-line service employees as well as maritime specialists, technical professionals and senior staff. The authority took responsibility for domestic commercial vessels in July, allowing it to increase its average staffing level cap. The roles in Coffs Harbour will be a mix of new and existing roles.
Some of the functions to be performed at the new office are similar to those in the existing 19 regional offices of the authority, and staff from Canberra will be given the opportunity to relocate, according to the department.
"The exact mix of new and existing roles is yet to be finalised and will be the subject of continued discussion and consultation with AMSA staff," the spokesman said.
The new office in Coffs Harbour is set to be operational within a year, with up to 40 jobs there at first, in what the government describes as the authority's regional headquarters.
Up to 50 jobs are expected to be at the new office by 2022. Coffs Harbour is in the electorate of Cowper, currently held by Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker, who will not run in next year's election. Former independent MP Rob Oakeshott ran against Mr Hartsuyker last time, and could pose a serious challenge if he was to run next year.
The government said Coffs Harbour was chosen over other areas due to factors such as the availability of office accommodation and providing access to stakeholders and local customers.
Other jobs will move to offices around the country, bringing the total of the decentralised jobs to 69.
"This is as well as expanding its existing regional footprint to provide up to 16 further positions in Hobart, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, Darwin, Geraldton, Karratha and Port Hedland," Mr McCormack said.
Airlie Beach is in the electorate of Dawson, held by the Nationals' George Christensen.
Decentralisation minister Bridget McKenzie signalled this announcement was the start of a new push for more jobs to be moved regionally.
"We want the benefits of decentralisation to be felt across a range of regions and communities and today’s announcement is a major step toward achieving that plan," Senator McKenzie said.
At Senate estimates in October Senator McKenzie said seven business cases for decentralisation from government agencies were "still in the pipeline for decision-making," and that more announcements were imminent. It's not clear if this announcement was one of the business cases being developed under the policy, with a spokesman only saying the announcement was in line with the policy.
"During the past few years and in the lead up to taking up full service delivery of the national system in July this year, AMSA has been steadily increasing its regional presence. The new office locations were identified to address AMSA’s under-representation in regional locations where substantial domestic commercial vessel fleets are in operation. This decision decision is in line Government’s decentralisation policy," the spokesman said.
Liberal senator for the ACT Zed Seselja said the announcement wouldn't affect jobs in Canberra.
"The announcement by the deputy prime minister this morning creates 50 new positions at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, to be filled by new applications or voluntary relocation into a new role. These new positions do not remove any current positions from the AMSA in Canberra," he said.
Senator Seselja's Labor counterpart David Smith said that while the authority already had a regional presence and was committed to having 25 per cent of its jobs outside Canberra, a plan for the workforce signed off in April this year made no mention of Coffs Harbour.
“AMSA already has 18 regional offices outside Canberra. That workforce plan didn’t include Coffs Harbour – if you were to move jobs why wouldn’t you move them to maritime hubs that already have AMSA offices such as Newcastle or Port Kembla?"
"This looks and smells like a pork barrel. The government should come clean with the business case for the movement of these jobs to Coffs Harbour out of step with the workforce plan of the organisation signed off this year," Senator Smith said.
The main public sector union said the business case for jobs at Coffs Harbour needed to be made and warned against forcing people to relocate.
"From what we can tell the vast majority of these Australian Marine Safety Authority positions are new jobs being created as the agency takes on additional responsibilities. A large segment of AMSA's workforce has always been based outside of Canberra, and that will always be the case, but core functions will remain in the capital as is entirely appropriate," the Community and Public Sector Union's deputy national president Lisa Newman.
"Putting AMSA jobs in politically sensitive locations at Coffs Harbour and Airlie Beach is blatant pork barrelling as the National Party scrambles to hold onto any semblance of political power. We're fully supportive of Commonwealth agencies putting new jobs into regional communities, but only where it stacks up," Ms Newman said.
