In a swift policy reversal, Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has scrapped a controversial plan to end work-from-home arrangements for federal employees, admitting the policy was “wrong” and had become a political liability just weeks out from the national election.
Speaking at a press conference in Adelaide on Monday, Dutton apologised for the proposal, which would have mandated a return to office for public servants and echoed similar moves by US President Donald Trump.
“We got it wrong and we’ve apologised for it,” Dutton said
The backflip marks a rare mid-campaign shift for the Coalition, which is trailing the Labor government ahead of the May 3 vote, according to a Bloomberg report. Dutton’s announcement in early March to end remote work had prompted criticism, particularly as it drew unfavourable comparisons to Trump, who remains unpopular among many Australians.
The plans were met with criticism from women’s advocacy organisations and the government, with concerns that a crackdown on remote work would disproportionately affect working women who rely on flexible arrangements to balance caring responsibilities. According to an ABC report, Labor finance minister Katy Gallagher accused the Coalition of neglecting women’s issues, while Dutton maintained the policy was aimed solely at public servants and would not interfere with existing enterprise bargaining agreements. “It doesn’t discriminate against people on the basis of gender,” Dutton said in March, before adding on Saturday that he wanted “to make sure that women have more choices in their lives and their work careers.”
Polling firm YouGov’s Paul Smith said the shift in public sentiment toward Labor in recent weeks could be partly attributed to Dutton’s “Trump-style” approach to the public service. Roughly a third of all federal public servants—approximately 68,435 as of June last year—are based in Canberra.
Dutton had defended the proposal by citing a rise in remote work, from 22% to 60%, and argued that taxpayers deserved efficiency from the government workforce. He said the government had “to make sure that where we have taxpayer money being expended on wages for public servants in Canberra we’re getting the most efficiency out of that investment.”
He also accused Labor of running a scare campaign and misrepresenting the policy’s impact. “Why do they want to scare women when the policy doesn’t affect anybody except for public servants in Canberra?” he said on Saturday, before formally abandoning the plan two days later.
The Coalition said that its plan to reduce the federal workforce by 41,000 positions would be implemented through attrition and hiring freezes, not mass layoffs. The opposition has framed the reduction as a cost-saving measure, arguing the Labor government has allowed public sector spending to balloon. Dutton estimates the current staffing levels cost taxpayers $7 billion annually.
Questions remain over how the Coalition intends to finance its campaign pledges, with the proposed staff reductions being its primary cost-saving measure to date. Bloomberg reported that Dutton has committed to tightening government spending as a strategy to ease inflationary pressures on households.
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