The Coalition’s work-from-home disaster reveals they’ve been trapped in an echo chamber | Samantha Maiden

You could almost see the colour drain from Peter Dutton’s face as he realised how badly the Coalition had misread Australia’s mood, writes Samantha Maiden.

Billionaire Elon Musk blasted US President Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro this week as “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”.

Whoever said politics is just showbusiness for ugly people was truly an individual of supernatural insights.

As the Trump administration continues to veer into a territory that might best be described as Married At First Sight crossed with a UFC cage fight, it’s such a car crash that is hard to look away.

It’s also a moment in history as Donald Trump tears down orthodoxy around free trade.

As the fight between Musk and Navarro demonstrates, there are signs that the fight between free trade enthusiasts and worshippers of “beautiful tariffs” isn’t over yet.

In Australia, it’s reshaping the federal election campaign in surprising and unexpected ways.

Swamping the election campaign and policy announcements, what is unfolding is upending the idea that the resurrection of Donald Trump is a universally good thing for Peter Dutton.

Now that the tariffs have been announced, it is clear that everyone has got hit and some countries a lot harder than Australia. The fallout is not as damaging to the Albanese Government – yet – as it first appeared.

There’s even an emerging view that given that we may not want to rattle Trump’s cage too much until after the election.

Whether it’s the fallout from Dutton’s backflip over work from home or tariffs, proximity to Trumpian ideas is proving deadly.

Not so long ago, Musk’s famous call to arms that Tesla employees must work a minimum of 40 hours in the office was embraced by conservatives.

“Moreover, the ‘office’ must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” the billionaire wrote.

It was in this spirit that Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume penned a piece in The Australian Financial Review in March that painted work-from-home public servants as lazy bludgers.

“And we’re hearing from stakeholders that they do things like fly to Canberra with their team to present to people in a department, walk into a meeting room and they meet with the public servants on video link or by phone,’’ she said.

“Now, that’s kind of crazy. We had one example where one public servant came to us and said that a team member that worked with them was difficult to get hold of because they were working from home full time. In fact, they were travelling around Australia in a caravan with their family.”

She complained the Albanese government had given public servants “a blank cheque to work from home” whenever they pleased.

That prompted the Labor Party to accuse Senator Hume of trying to “frogmarch” mum and dad public servants back into highrise towers in the city.

Then the wobbles set in.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at BlueScope Steel in St Clair in Sydneys west. Picture Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

You could see the colour drain from Mr Dutton’s face as it appeared to dawn on him mid-interview on national television that mums and dads might find the idea of ending WFM not a great idea.

Mr Dutton explained that he only wanted to return to pre-Covid levels of WFM, not five days a week.

Despite the fact the original policy only applied to public servants, the fallout bled fast into private sector employees who weren’t jazzed by Jane’s big ideas.

She was then wheeled out to mop up the mess. It reminded one of those Enid Blyton books: Good Idea Jane, Jane Gets into Trouble and Jane is Naughty Again.

“A Coalition government will not change current flexible working arrangements, including work-from-home policies. There will be no mandated minimum number of days for public servants to work in the office,’’ Senator Hume said.

And lo, Peter Dutton emerged to apologise for the policy, admitting he “made a mistake” and “got it wrong”.

Today show host Sarah Abo asked Mr Dutton: “Will you be asking for forgiveness from female voters?”

“I think I am today,’’ he replied.

“We never had any intention for work-from-home changes that we were proposing in Canberra to apply across the private sector, but the Prime Minister was out there saying that – it was just a lie.

“We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy. We apologise for that. And we’ve dealt with it.

But it begs the question: If work from home was such a big problem last month, why is it somehow a brilliant idea in April?

More thinking should have gone into this policy in the first place. Frankly, it’s an example of the echo chamber that the Liberal leader spends too much time living in.

Up until recently, he only really gave interviews to 2GB radio and Sky News and the Today show on a Friday.

US President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner at the National Building Museum on April 08, 2025 in Washington, DC. Picture: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images via AFP

That’s fine and dandy when you’re prime minister, but is it really such a good idea when you’re in opposition?

The Liberal leader has studiously avoided press conferences in Canberra since he was elected leader in 2022 and it’s sometimes shown on the campaign trail.

Generally speaking, he remains a better performer than PM Anthony Albanese on his feet and this was in evidence during the debate on Tuesday night when he performed well and had some good comebacks.

Mr Dutton’s response to the Prime Minister holding up his Medicare card – again – and telling people they only need the green card when they go to the doctor and not their credit card, was rightly called out as baloney.

Plenty of people still need their credit card and many will continue to do so even if the ALP is re-elected and boosts bulk billing.

With pre-polling opening on April 22, Mr Dutton doesn’t have much time to unveil big policies.

This week there was more detail on gas, but with predictions it will reduce retail gas bills by a paltry 7 per cent, and even less for electricity, it is unlikely to spark dancing in the streets.

The Dutton campaign’s frequent trips to Victoria still suggest he’s still hopeful of big, bad swings against the Labor Party.

Some have suggested it could be as big as 7 per cent. But the overall polling suggests he’s not on track to form even a minority government.

That means the most likely outcome, at this stage, is the return of the Albanese government in a minority format, just like Julia Gillard in 2010.

Originally published as The Coalition’s work-from-home disaster reveals they’ve been trapped in an echo chamber | Samantha Maiden