Barnaby Joyce has downplayed the importance of cost-benefit analyses as he faces friendly fire over plans to drive government departments out of capital cities.
The deputy prime minister, who will within months order all federal departments to justify their ongoing presence in big cities or face relocation to rural and region towns, warned against focusing only on the financial implications.
Canberra would not exist and public transport fares would be through-the-roof if governments relied solely on the accounting measure, Mr Joyce argues.
"The Opera House? Well forget about that, it would never pass the cost-benefit analysis. Fireworks on New Year's Day? No way, there's no cost-benefit analysis that will allow that," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"It's something that has to be considered, but it's not the sole determinant that rules the outcome."
The Nationals, facing sustained criticism over the controversial decision to shift the pesticides authority from Canberra to Mr Joyce's electorate, have announced their decentralisation policy will be applied across the whole government.
A template for ministers to assess which other public servants could also be uprooted will be developed by mid-year.
Ministers will be given until August to report back on which of their departments, functions or entities would be suitable to move, with each expected to "actively justify" why any agency is unsuitable for relocation.
Business cases would have to follow by December.
Coalition frontbencher Zed Seselja, a Liberal senator for the ACT, said departments should not have to waste their time justifying why they're in the national capital.
He doubts the policy announcement will come to anything.
"The chances of any sort of significant moves out of Canberra I think are very slim because I think the case will be very weak," Senator Seselja told ABC radio.
Mr Joyce said Treasury would obviously not budge, and nor would whole departments, but appropriate sections would in line with the government's vision for the nation.
"We don't need a parliament if all you're going to rely on is cost-benefit analysis. We can all just retire and go home and let KPMG run the show," he said.
Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said without a commitment to release the cost-benefit analyses, the announcement was "all headline, no substance".
"Without a proper assessment of costs, decentralisation risks being an expensive policy failure, and an empty promise for regional and rural Australians," he said.
"Simply shuffling around agencies does not create more jobs, and regional Australia deserves better."
