TRANSCRIPT
"We're listening to what people have to say. We've made a mistake in relation to the policy. We apologise for that and we've dealt with it."
That's Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, speaking to Channel Nine, after abandoning the coalition's policy to force all public servants back into the office.
"Our intention always was to make sure where taxpayers are working hard and their money is being spent to pay wages that its being spent efficiently."
The coalition's changes to the public service were a centre piece of its election platform.... cutting 41,000 jobs, and ending work from home.
The initial plan was to force all public servants back into the office five days a week if it won the next election.
But over the weekend, Peter Dutton said he only meant workers in Canberra.
And now, the whole policy has been abandoned - with no changes to be made to the current flexible working arrangements.
Mr Dutton says the whole issue has been blown out of proportion by the Labor Party.
"I've apologised for the decision that we took in relation to work from home. It only applied to Canberra. Labor's run this scare campaign and I think we bring an end to that today and we strongly support flexible workplace arrangements."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese taking advantage of the coalition's reversal of course.
He says the whole thing shows how out of touch Mr Dutton is with female voters in particular.
"Peter Dutton wants to undermine work rights, and in particular, doesn't understand modern families, doesn't understand the important role that women and men play in organising their families and organising appropriate work conditions wherever it is possible."
Mr Albanese says, although it was only a policy for the public sector, it could have had flow on effects for all workers.
"Go through Hansard and look for Liberal party IR spokespeople saying the reason why this shouldn't happen in the public sector is because it flows through to the private sector. That's what they say, that's their whole argument."
Internal Liberal Party polling was showing the policy was deeply unpopular.
And the latest Newspoll shows the Coalition behind Labor on two party preferred basis - 48 to 52.
Mr Dutton now looking to simply move on from the whole issue.
"The objective for us is to make sure that we can win the next election so that we can manage the economy well. That we can support families get through what's been a really difficult period."
The coalition has also changed its approach to cutting public sector jobs.
It still plans to reduce the Australian Public Service by 41,000 over five years, but has ruled out achieving it through forced redundancies, instead relying on a hiring freeze and natural attrition.
Peter Dutton has previously said the public sector has grown exponentially under Labor, and cutting 41,000 jobs would reduce wasteful government spending.
Melissa Donnelly from the Community and Public Sector Union says this approach has its problems.
"The policy to do this by natural attrition is a policy for chaotic cuts. It means that there'll be cuts right across the public sector when people leave the public sector not refilling those jobs. This is also a policy that's going to have a disproportionate impact on frontline services."
She says those public-facing agencies have a higher staff turnover.
"Frontline agencies like Services Australia often have a higher departure rate. So on our calculations, this would see 12,500 jobs out of Services Australia over the five year period, which represents 42% of that agency."
