Following on from Barnaby Joyce's controversial, not to say chaotic and damaging, relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority from the ACT to Armidale in 2016, the Coalition has seized on decentralisation as the new buzz word to describe good old fashioned pork barrelling.

The APVMA debacle, for the record, was panned in a Senate inquiry report in February which found its forced relocation to Joyce's electorate had "hampered the regulator's ability to address a number of long-running issues". And that it would "take the APVMA a number of years to regain its lost scientific, technical and management strength".

The report recommended "the Australian government takes into consideration the disruption caused by the forced relocation of the APVMA, including the ongoing impact on staff capability and capacity, and prioritises a fit-for-purpose and stable workforce over any [future] decentralisation policy".

Numbers tabled in recent Senate hearings by the Infrastructure Department show this advice has been ignored.

It stands to reason that Canberra will always fare poorly when the Liberals and The Nationals weaponise the decentralisation process to shore up their votes in key marginal electorates.

The ACT has a strong history of voting Labor locally and federally. There just aren't that many LNP votes to be either lost or won in this neck of the woods.

Despite the fact that almost half the number of federal public servants employed in Canberra work in Sydney and Melbourne - 24,700 compared to 55,200 - the nation's two largest cities have fared much better than this regional city of just 400,000 souls in the latest shakeup.

While Canberra can expect to lose at least 400 positions from its APS workforce only 37 are going from Sydney and a mere seven from Melbourne.

If the decentralisation process was fair, equitable and transparent you would expect Sydney and Melbourne to shed at least 180 jobs between them, not the minimal 43 that is actually going to be the case.

If this isn't proof enough that the system is being rigged for blatant political gain ahead of the 2022 election then you only have to look at where the jobs are going.

Senators were told major beneficiaries of the changes would be western Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane - all of which are political battlegrounds which will play a significant role in deciding if the LNP is returned for a third term three years from now.

Hundreds of jobs have apparently been slated for the South Australian capital, the heartland for the Centre Alliance, alone.

It beggars belief that the Decentralisation Minister, the Nationals's Mark Coulton, could keep a straight face when he said the relocations would leave jobs growth in the ACT unharmed while growing economic activity in rural Australia.

The last time we checked there wasn't a great deal of broadacre farming taking place in or around Bankstown.

The effects of these decisions will last far longer than the current electoral cycle. If the APVMA experience is anything to go by there will be massive losses of continuity and experience in key departments as talented staff walk out the door rather than leave their homes, their families and their social networks.