Opposition leader Peter Dutton has issued an apology to voters after retracting his earlier position on a work-from-home policy that aimed to mandate public servants return to their offices. He accuses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of misconstruing his original intentions.
Previously, Dutton had stated that a Coalition government would compel public service employees to return to on-site work. In an interview on the Today show, he remarked, “We’re listening to what people have to say.” Acknowledging a misstep, he admitted, “We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy. We apologise for that, and we’ve dealt with it.”
Critics had warned that such a policy could disproportionately disadvantage women and parents who depend on flexible working arrangements. This reconsideration comes as recent polling indicates growing support for Labor, with the latest Newspoll giving them a 52-48 two-party preferred advantage.
In his defence, Dutton accused Albanese of incorrectly insinuating that the Coalition’s proposed work-from-home changes would extend to the private sector, clarifying that there had never been intentions to alter such arrangements across private employment. He commented, “We never had any intention for work-from-home changes that we were proposing in Canberra to apply across the private sector.”
Additionally, Dutton is working to reshape public perception regarding his commitment to reducing the public service workforce by 41,000 positions. He noted on Today that the plan has always been to achieve these reductions through a hiring freeze and natural attrition, as opposed to large-scale layoffs. The proposed job cuts are part of a strategy aimed at generating $7 billion in government savings. “There’s no change to the costing at all because the original plan of the natural attrition and the freezing was what we’d always had,” asserted Dutton.
In sum, Dutton’s recent manoeuvres highlight a reactive approach to public sentiment and a desire to clarify his policies amidst rising electoral pressures for the Coalition party.