Coalition abandons plans to scrap WFH and forced redundancies: reports
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The news: Opposition leader Peter Dutton will axe plans to force public servants back to the office, and walk back its pledge to axe 41,000 workers through forced redundancies.
The numbers: According to media reports, the Coalition will on Monday unveil a five-year plan to reduce the public sector by 41,000 workers through hiring freezes and stopping filling the roles of workers who retire or resign, rather than through forced redundancies.
The Coalition had previously said it would allocate the estimated $24 billion in savings from the job cuts to help pay for its over $8 billion of healthcare and other spending commitments.
The context: The policy reversal comes just one week into the federal election campaign, after the Coalition’s plan to force workers back to the office full time received strong backlash – particularly from female voters.
Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume had initially said that a Dutton government would require all members of the Australian public service to work from the office five days a week. Late last week Dutton partially walked back the pledge, saying that the policy would only apply to public servants in Canberra.
"We have listened, and understand that flexible work, including work from home, is part of getting the best out of any workforce," Senator Hume said in a statement received by the ABC on Sunday.
"We need the best from our public servants, and that is why there will be no change to flexible working arrangements or working from home arrangements for the public service under a Coalition government."
Dutton’s call to back down from the 41,000 forced redundancies came as PM Anthony Albanese and the Labor party increased efforts to draw parallels between Dutton and the US President Trump’s job cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Treasurer Jim Chalmers has referred to the opposition leader as “DOGE-y Dutton,” while Albanese said “The future we want is not an American-style wages system. Not American levels of student debt. And never, ever American healthcare.”
The sources: The Australian, ABC, AFR
