Peter Dutton’s copped it: the Coalition’s working from home plan for public servants has been ditched.
The Opposition Leader took the only course he could when it was clear the working-from-home policy of getting public servants back into the office had bombed.
Dutton said he had made a mistake, apologised and is trying to move on.
“We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy,” he said. “We apologise for that. And we’ve dealt with it,” he said.
The policy had all sorts of problems: it looked like a Trump-esque attack on public servants; it was open to exploitation and, most importantly, it was seen as an attack on working mothers.
After the Trump tariffs and Labor’s portrayal of Dutton as a Trump sympathiser, the idea that he was doing an Elon Musk in pursuit of the bureaucracy was damaging. Labor had extended the scare campaign to include — falsely — the private sector and Anthony Albanese was seeking to make Dutton’s “problem with women” even greater.
Dutton tried to blame Albanese for the Coalition’s backflip, accusing Labor of “twisting” their proposal.
“But we’re not going to be framed up by a Prime Minister who’s got a real problem with the truth,” he said.
But the truth is the policy had its own problems from the beginning and was genuinely concerning working mothers – and fathers – who are balancing childcare costs, work commitments and family.
There are young couples splitting working from home between them to reduce childcare costs and maximise time with their small children.
This policy may have been directed at productivity but it ran counter to the message that the Coalition was family-friendly and the suburbs’ best friend.
At least in the grand tradition of Queensland leaders – notably Labor’s Peter Beattie – Dutton has admitted the mistake, apologised and sought to move on.
Unlike the Prime Minister, who can’t admit a mistake and digs himself deeper into trouble trying to defend the indefensible.
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