Chris Parker arrived at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority in May amid plunging performance figures and after staff resigned in large numbers as the Coalition government decided to relocate the agency to Armidale.

Replacing former authority boss Kareena Arthy, who resigned ahead of the move, Dr Parker has so far overseen an end to a horror run of deteriorating agency performance and opted to fast-track its relocation plans.

During a Senate estimates hearing in October, he also refused to rule out forced redundancies for staff who cannot relocate or work remotely when it completes its move in mid-2019.

Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Luke Hartsuyker said Dr Parker's five-year appointment followed a comprehensive, merit-based recruitment process.

"He has been able to achieve a significant amount during his short time acting as interim CEO, and I look forward to him progressing this work," he said.

The agency last month posted its first improvement in on-time crop product approvals in a year.

It finalised 1058 applications for new products in the September quarter or almost double the usual number in previous quarters, keeping its on-time approval rate for all products steady at 58 per cent.

However close to half its work remains unfinished by agency deadlines and it is approving only a third of crop protection products within timeframes ahead of the move, a signature Nationals policy and a forebear of the Coalition's push to decentralise the public service.

Dr Parker expects a review released in December to shed light on the causes of the authority's performance drop.

He was a senior political adviser in the agriculture portfolio during the Howard government and was recently assistant secretary for plant export operations at the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

From 2011 until 2015, he served as an agriculture counsellor at Australia's embassy in Washington.