Peter Dutton backflips on wildly unpopular WFH policy

Peter Dutton has made a stunning admission after killing off his WFH policy after backlash from female voters, saying it was a “mistake”. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Peter Dutton has ditched his plan to make Canberra public servants work from the office five days a week after the policy proved unpopular with voters, particularly among women who want work flexibility, telling Australians “we have listened”.

Mr Dutton, speaking on Today from Adelaide, admitted he was asking for forgiveness from female voters, saying it was a “mistake” to stop Canberra public servants working from home.

The Opposition Leader reiterated that he wanted to spend taxpayer dollars wisely but accused Labor of scaring voters into thinking it would apply to the private sector. 

Asked if he was asking for forgiveness from female voters Mr Dutton said: “I think I am today”.

Peter Dutton has ditched his plan to make Canberra public servants work from the office five days a week. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“We’re listening to what people have to say. We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy. We apologise for that and we’ve dealt with it,” Mr Dutton told Today. 

“We want to spend taxpayers’ money efficiently but I think Labor’s been able to get away with twisting this into something it wasn’t.

“Work from home is a reality for many people, for our friends, for people in our workplace and we’re supportive of that.”

The Coalition’s backdown comes only days after Mr Dutton insisted his policy, requiring about 80 per cent of Commonwealth employees in the nation’s capital to go into the office full-time, would improve productivity.

It is not the Coalition’s only reversal in their effort to win female voters, with the Liberals also disendorsing its candidate in the NSW seat of Whitlam, after he claimed women shouldn’t serve in combat roles in the military.

Mr Dutton will also clarify his plan to slash 41,000 public service jobs, announcing if elected he would not conduct any forced redundancies.

Instead, the Coalition would reduce the workforce over five years through hiring freezes and “natural attrition” as people leave their jobs.

The opposition’s “plan for an efficient and effective public service” would also only use external consultants “temporarily” or “on a project basis”.

Redbridge polling for News Corp found Mr Dutton was struggling to gain support from female voters, with the Coalition’s stance on working from home identified as a major factor.

Making public servants return to the office had a negative favourability rating among Australians of -5, while for women specifically the unfavourability was -16.

Coalition public service spokeswoman Jane Hume said there would be “no change” to flexible working arrangements, including from home, for the public service under a Dutton government.

“We have listened, and understand that flexible work, including working from home, is part of getting the best out of any workforce,” she said.

Capping off a bad start to the week for the opposition, a Newspoll conducted for The Australian showed Labor currently leads the Coalition 52 to 48 on a two-party preferred basis, which is the same as Anthony Albanese’s majority-winning 2022 election result.

Last month Peter Dutton had said he wanted public servants in Canberra going back to pre-Covid levels of working from home, which was about 20 per cent, down from the roughly 60 per cent working from home some days of the week currently.

On Saturday the Opposition leader softened his tone, insisting the requirement would only impact the Canberra-based public service.

Now, Ms Hume said there would be no “mandated minimum number of days for public servants to work in the office” and accused Labor of misleading voters by implying the policy had included the private sector.

It comes as analysis by Labor found flexible working arrangements have boosted women’s participation in the workforce, rising from 54 per cent of all workers pre-pandemic to 58 per cent currently.

They also found families would be $740 a week worse off if a woman currently on the average full-time wage had to drop down to only three days a week in order to meet work from the office requirements.

Meanwhile, the NSW Liberals on Sunday confirmed the party had dumped Whitlam candidate Ben Britton over his previously undisclosed views on women.

Mr Britton, a former Australian Defence Force (ADF) member, appeared on podcasts before his December preselection for the safe Labor seat of Whitlam, where he suggested women were not fit for active combat.

“If we’re to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they’re going to need to remove females from combat corps,” he said.

Mr Britton also blamed “diversity and equity quotas, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies” for weakening Australia’s defence.

The new Liberal candidate for Whitlam is Nathaniel Smith.

Originally published as Peter Dutton backflips on wildly unpopular WFH policy