If elected, the Coalition plans to scrap working-from-home arrangements for Australia’s 185,000 public servants, who’ve been allowed to work from home in large numbers since the pandemic hit, saying it’ll make the public sector more efficient.
Following an executive order from Donald Trump, US public servants who have declined to return to the office have been put on administrative leave, with the administration also asking public servants to explain their achievements.
However, Mr Albanese claimed the Opposition had borrowed policy ideas from Mr Trump, and also targeted the Coalition’s department of government efficiency led by Elon Musk, while also attacking another Coalition policy to cut the public service by about 20 per cent, or 36,000 staff.
“They want public servants to be at home full-time, 36,000 of them, because they want to get rid of them,” he said.
“They’re saying you can stay at home … for the rest of your life.”
“Fair dinkum, what we’re seeing from Peter Dutton is that he’s as lazy as a sack of spuds when it comes to policy, him and his team, that if they hear something in the news – an announcement from overseas about chopping public servants, or people working from home, or this DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) business that they’re so worried about – they’re like, ‘Aye, I’ll have a bit of that.”
“What we need is a policy that suits our unique Australian circumstances, because we’re proud to be one of the top countries globally and we shouldn’t feel the need to follow anyone else’s lead.”
The push to get people back to the office is following the Coalition’s promise to axe up to 36,000 public sector jobs, which Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume said would save approximately $6 billion per year.
Detailing the latest policy announcement in a speech made to the conservative Menzies Research Centre on Sunday, Senator Hume said the current arrangements for working from home were “unsustainable”.
“This is only sensible policy that will create a culture that puts the dignity of serving the public first, a service that relies on public funding and shows respect for that funding by making sure it’s as productive as it can be,” she said.
On a Monday, Mr Dutton stated it’s the expectation of taxpayers for public servants to be “working as hard as they are”, particularly during a cost-of-living crisis.
“Taxpayers are really struggling to pay their bills at the moment. People don’t have the means at the moment to foot their increased insurance premiums, and rent has risen by 20 per cent. What’s more, people have had to deal with 12 interest-rate hikes under this Prime Minister.”
I reckon Aussie taxpayers who are busting their guts under this government and just managing to stay afloat financially, they’d expect the government and its employees to be putting in just as much effort as they are.
“Canberrans refusing to return to work is not acceptable. We require an efficient delivery of government services.”
