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Call to move DAFWA to Northam

Jo FulwoodThe West Australian
The DAFWA headquarters at South Perth.
Camera IconThe DAFWA headquarters at South Perth. Credit: The West Australian

Member for Geraldton and former Eradu farmer Ian Blayney has called on the State Government to shelve its $240 million plans to upgrade the Department of Agriculture and Food's South Perth headquarters, and instead relocate the offices to Northam.

Current plans will see $140 million spent on a biosecurity laboratory and $100 million allocated to an office block to replace the 1950s-era office in South Perth, to be completed by 2021.

The idea to move the Department is not new, with Mr Blayney saying the Liberal Party had committed to the move as part of its 2005 State election campaign.

"It was a commitment that the Liberals took to the election in 2005 - we were going to move agriculture to Northam, and (the Department of) Fisheries to Geraldton, but we lost that election," he said.

Regionalising Government departments is also a barrow being pushed by the Opposition, with shadow agriculture minister Ken Travers calling for the Department of Regional Development and Lands to be moved to Bunbury and the Department of Local Government to Albany.

But the Opposition isn't supporting the call to move agriculture to Northam, with Mr Travers saying his party was concerned the proposal was just an excuse to further delay the construction of the new head office and bio-security facilities.

According to Mr Travers, the WA Labor Government had committed $130.3 million in the 2008/09 Budget for new agriculture headquarters and biosecurity facilities to be located at Murdoch University, before losing the 2008 election to the Liberal Party.

He said this location had been chosen due to the symmetries of being co-located alongside a university.

"WA urgently needs a new head office for the Department of Agriculture and Food," Mr Travers said.

"The constant delay in new biosecurity facilities is putting WA agriculture at risk.

"Mr Barnett has blown the credit card on building his CBD monuments and is now looking for an excuse to delay infrastructure that actually supports a great industry underpinning WA's economy."

And as with the Labor plan to create synergies with education and research, Mr Blayney's plan to move the Department to Northam could see the regional centre become a "super base" for agricultural research and education.

Speaking during Parliament on May 13, Mr Blayney said the logical place to headquarter agriculture was Northam, which had the beginnings of a centre of agricultural research and education.

"Agriculture should be handled in this way as it is in other places, such as Stellenbosch in South Africa's Western Cape, or Orange in New South Wales," he said in his speech to parliament.

"Agriculture is one industry in which the workers frequently expect to be placed in rural areas, and usually prefer to be in rural areas.

"I suggest selling the Agriculture Department's site in South Perth and using the proceeds to move most of its functions to Northam, and locating the functions that need to remain in the metropolitan area in Midland."

But he said any plans to move would need to be executed over a number of years to retain key staff and personnel.

Agriculture Minister Ken Baston said the Government was reviewing the plans to build the new $140 million biosecurity laboratory and the new $100 million office block in South Perth.

He said a range of site options, including Northam, had been considered by governments during the past 15 years.

However, to attract and retain the right skill-set, at least half the staff would need to be based in the metropolitan area.

"My goal is to increase the balance of staff in the regions," he said.

Mr Baston said current plans had the new development occupying only 25 percent of the site at South Perth by 2020/21, with the remainder of the land to be sold or re-developed for other purposes.

He said work was already underway, which could see Northam become a centre for grains with about 70 additional staff.

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