Canberra public servants hoping the unplanned departures of Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash from the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively might have derailed The Nationals assault on jobs in the Federal Capital are in for a bitter disappointment.
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While Ms Nash has definitely left the building, Mr Joyce made a triumphant return after the voters of New England rewarded him for his inability to fill out paperwork with an increase in his first preference vote.
Mr Joyce's by-election victory has, if anything, strengthened The National's position in the Coalition.
This will likely manifest itself in the New Year with increased pressure for more Canberra jobs to be sent to the bush as part of an exercise in pork barrelling designed to help the lesser coalition party fight off One Nation.
Given the whole idea of Canberra was to put bureaucrats and politicians in the same place so they could communicate with each other, moves such as sending the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Mr Joyce's electorate have nothing to do with good governance.
That was, if anything, quite the reverse. If the APVMA experience is to be taken as a guide then any future relocations will be absurdly expensive and counterproductive almost to the point of destroying the agencies or services that are targeted.
APVMA staff resignations surged from nine per cent to 19 per cent as workers voted against leaving Canberra with their feet. The Authority's performance plummeted with on time product approvals falling from 83 per cent in September 2016 to 42 per cent in March 2017.
Key stakeholders, including farmers and industry representatives, were also critical of the move which was slammed in a report prepared by the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee in June.
Committee members described the move, which went ahead despite what was described as an exceptionally unfavourable and hard to obtain cost benefit analysis report, as "all cost and no benefit".
While the Coalition has now pledged to consider cost benefit analyses and to undertake public consultations in any future forced relocations to the regions, there is no real reason to believe these statements are anything more than trite platitudes designed to appease critics.
The Senate estimates committee which is reviewing the National Party led plan was originally due to report back on other possible projects and options before December 31.
It is now seeking leave to extend its deliberations by another five months until the end of May next year.
This could be seen as recognition the APVMA relocation, which saw staff morale plummet to record lows, has been a chaotic catastrophe.
Given the ACT Government estimates the Territory's gross state product would lose $110 million for every 1000 public service jobs lost, it is to be hoped Mr Turnbull and other senior Liberals think long and hard before signing off on any more pork barrelling exercises to appease The Nationals.
