Nationals leader Matt Canavan wants more people to be encouraged to work from home. Photo: Nationals.
The Coalition is talking about work from home again, but now they seem to love the idea.
During last year’s federal election campaign, the Opposition had vowed to force all public servants back into the office, saying Labor had given them “a blank cheque to work from home”.
The policy bombed, however, after it was immediately perceived as a move against working mums and one that would target more than just public servants.
Now, new Nationals leader Matt Canavan has revisited the policy and turned it on its head.
He now sees it as a way of populating regional Australia and an encouragement for people to move to the bush.
Offering flexible working arrangements, he suggests, could be a remedy to “stacking people” in capital cities and a key to ensuring backyards do not become “as extinct as the Tasmanian tiger”.
“Attracting people to the regions needs investment in roads, industry and hospitals. But we also need to encourage more work-from-home opportunities,” Senator Canavan wrote in an op-ed article on Tuesday (17 March).
“It takes two jobs for most families to move now, and work from home allows people in the bush to have many professional jobs.”
Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume loves the idea too – and she was the one who promised to put an end to working from home last year.
Here’s a reminder of what she told the Menzies Research Centre in her capacity as shadow finance minister in Peter Dutton’s Coalition team ahead of last year’s federal election.
“While work-from-home arrangements can work, in the case of the APS, it has become a right that is creating inefficiency.
“Work from home arrangements for public servants should only be in place when the arrangements work for the employee’s department, their team, and the individual.
“This isn’t controversial … however, this government has given public servants a blank cheque to work from home.
“Led by the Community and Public Sector Union, Labor has made work from home a right for the individual, not an arrangement that works for all.
“This is unsustainable … it will be an expectation of a Dutton Liberal government that all members of the APS work from the office five days a week.”
Jane Hume told the Menzies Research Centre last year she would force public servants back to the office. Now she thinks WFH is a great idea. Photo: Menzies Research Centre.
Now, as the Liberal Party’s number two, Senator Hume reckons the Nats’ leader is right to encourage work from home.
She thinks it’s a “terrific” idea, even.
And she insists she was never trying to undo existing arrangements in place across the Australian Public Service.
Responding to Senator Canavan’s idea on Tuesday, Senator Hume told ABC radio that she always supported government departments having the final say about where their employees worked.
“If the department thinks that the best way for a department to attract and retain the best and retain the most productive employees to deliver on its promise to the taxpayer, well then that’s a great idea,” she said.
“The policy that we floated but then we did not take to the last election was really about people who live 10 minutes away from the office who weren’t coming in.”
Senator Canavan has also lamented the loss of “carefree Sunday arvos” for Australians following a hard week’s work.
“Under Labor, people can no longer enjoy their weekends as they worry about rising prices, higher interest rates and a declining country,” he said.
“The Australian people deserve to get their carefree Sunday arvos back. I want the Australian people to be able to relax on a Sunday afternoon in a home that they own, watching their children play, while they enjoy a much-deserved drink, after a hard week’s work.
“The good news is that we have all the resources here to fix things.
“We do not need to import energy, minerals, know-how or people. We have been blessed to have it all here. We just need to use Australian resources for the benefit of the Australian people again.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
