Dutton: ‘we made a mistake’ on work from home policy
Peter Dutton has apologised over the Coalition’s policy to force more public servants to return to the office.
The Opposition leader is on the Today Show and says he’s “listening to what people have to say”, and like Hume, has also blamed Labor for implying that the policy would also apply to the private sector.
Sarah Abo grills him, starting off by asking: “will you be asking for forgiveness from female voters?”
Dutton replies: “I think I am today”:
We never had any intention for work from home changes that we were proposing in Canberra to apply across the private sector, but the Prime minister was out there saying that, it was just a lie …
We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy. We apologise for that. And we’ve dealt with it.
There’s been a fair bit of confusion over how exactly the party would axe 41,000 public service jobs. The Coalition’s policy on that has also taken a big step back, with the promise of no redundancies. But Dutton claims that was always the policy.
That was always the plan, that there would be natural attrition and a hiring freeze and that achieved.
Key events
Earlier this morning, employment minister Murray Watt said any government would struggle to bring down public service numbers by 41,000 through natural attrition and hiring freezes over the space of five years.
Dutton is asked if he’s confident that 41,000 people will be willing to quit, and how exactly the Coalition would be able to raise the billions of dollars it’s previously promised through the policy.
He hints that there’s been some sort of modelling done on that.
We have worked with the Parliamentary Budget Office to achieve that profiling. That’s the work we’ve done with the PBO. And we’ll have more to say about that.
Dutton blames Labor for ‘scare campaign’ over work from home
Back to Peter Dutton fronting the media, and we’re on to questions – no surprises here: the first one is on work from home.
He’s asked just how bad the polling was to make a decision like this in the middle of the election campaign. Dutton says he now strongly supports flexible arrangements, and has blamed Labor for creating a scare campaign on the policy.
I have apologised for the decision 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.
Investors brace for ASX plunge
Jonathan Barrett
The Australian sharemarket is positioned for a major sell-off on Monday morning as investors brace for a full-blown global trade war sparked by Donald Trump’s new tariff regime.
Australia’s share price index futures are pointing down more than 5%, which would shift the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 to its lowest level in more than a year.
This would represent well over $100bn being wiped off the value of the share market, diminishing the value of most investment and superannuation portfolios.
The anticipated move follows sharp falls on Wall Street on Friday, weighed down by China’s retaliatory tariffs.
The Australian dollar has also fallen sharply.
Dutton spruiks fuel excise and roads investments in South Australia
Peter Dutton is standing up in the ultra-marginal seat of Sturt in South Australia, which the party is trying to hold on to (and both Labor and the Greens have been eyeing).
He’s staring on a more local announcement about the greater Adelaide freight bypass, saying a Coalition government would promise 80% of the cost.
Speaking of roads, he’s also plugging the Coalition’s promise to cut the fuel excise.
If you support our candidates here in South Australia, if you support a coalition government, we’ll slash the price of petrol and diesel by 25 cents a litre.
Le on who she might support in a hung parliament: ‘I’ve got to win this election first’
Le also weighs in on the work from home backflip and says workers that need flexible and family-friendly arrangements should be supported. But for her community, the majority of workers are operating in factories or are teachers, nurses and retail workers who can’t work from home.
On who she might support in the event of a hung parliament, she says:
I got chucked out by the Liberal party, so I’m glad to be an independent… I’m there to represent, in making sure my community gets the resources and infrastructure they need. Let’s wait till the results of the election. I don’t want to be presumptuous, I’ve got to win this election first.
Dai Le: cost of living help could be ‘to little, too late’
Independent MP Dai Le, who sensationally beat Labor’s parachuted candidate Kristina Keneally at the last election, says she’s glad to see the focus on cost of living, but wonders if it’s a bit too late.
Le says both the tax cuts legislated by Labor and the fuel excise cut promised by the Coalition will go some way to help her constituents living in Western Sydney. The excise cut is something she’s also previously called for.
It’s great to see the major parties are now campaigning on those issues. I wonder though, it’s a bit too little, too late for our community.
I think [the] stage-three tax cuts revised was very good, Hecs reduction was great … any kind of help, people will appreciate it. …I think [the] petrol fuel excise, obviously that has been something I have been asking for as well …people are still feeling the pain and choosing between heating and eating.
Sukkar says ‘huge number of our homes are being occupied by international students’ as Coalition proposes caps
A little earlier this morning, the shadow housing minister, Michael Sukkar, was on ABC RN Breakfast, talking about the Coalition’s policy announcement over the weekend that they’ll cut international student numbers to help fix the housing crisis.
Labor had tried to legislate a cap on international students last year, but the Coalition had refused to give their support (and so had the crossbench).
While experts and industry groups have said international students only make up around 4% to 6% of rentals in Australia, Sukkar says he think Australians would be “utterly startled” by that figure:
I think they [Australians] would be utterly startled to find that 6% of our rental stock in this in the entire nation is taken up by international students… 6% of our entire rental stock is being occupied by foreign students. I don’t think that makes the point that those are suggesting, I think it makes the exact point we’re making. A huge number of our homes are being occupied by international students.
Sukkar says the Coalition’s policy would cut around 80,000 international students, but that there will still be a “very significant” number of the cohort in Australia, by international standards.
Is that all true? Here’s our factcheck:
Albanese: Labor’s ‘position clear’ on Port of Darwin
Albanese is asked to pinpoint when exactly he made the decision to retake control of the port of Darwin.
The Australian newspaper reports the Northern Territory government explicitly ruled out the prospect of a forced sale as recently as a month ago. Albanese said federal Labor has always opposed the sale of the lease to Landbridge – a Chinese-owned company.
There have been discussions… NT government officials have had discussions with our federal departments. That has been under way.
Albanese said Luke Gosling, in his role as the envoy for Northern Australia, has visited the port and met with the company.
He’s [Gosling] made our position clear. There have been discussions as well between private sector, including superannuation funds, with the company over a period of time.
Albanese optimistic about plucking Victorian seats off the Coalition
Victoria will no doubt be a battleground state this election – which is why we’ve seen both Albanese and Dutton spend a fair bit of time across Melbourne so far.
And while a lot of the commentary is around Labor trying to fend off the Coalition from key seats, Albanese says he’s still positive about plucking more from the opposition.
I want to win seats like Menzies and Deakin. That’s why I was in Deakin last week. I hope Michael Sukkar [the current Liberal member for Deakin] is door knocking… because I think that his whole way that he conducts himself is not what we need in 2025, what we need is effective local members who stand up for their communities.
Menzies and Deakin, in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne are both on razor-thin margins.
Following redistributions in the seat, Menzies – currently held by Liberal MP Keith Wolahan – is now notionally Labor with a 0.4% margin. Deakin, held by shadow cabinet minister Sukkar, is one of the closest seats in the country with a 0.02% margin in the Liberal’s favour.
PM says some Coalition candidates are ‘part of the takeover of the Liberal party by the hard right’
Albanese weighs in on Ben Britton being dumped by the Liberal party, and asks how the Coalition could have endorsed him in the first place.
If you missed it – here’s what went down yesterday afternoon:
Albanese also points to South Australian senator Alex Antic getting the No 1 spot on the Senate ticket for the Liberal party, over his more senior colleague, the shadow health minister, Anne Ruston.
I think the women of Australia will be asking themselves: what is going on when Peter Dutton can endorse a bloke who has the views that he put forward over a long period of time [and] was a former candidate for the UAP[?]
This is a part of … the takeover of the Liberal party by the hard right. When you look at Alex Antic being number one on the ticket, he’s got his shadow health minister at number two, a woman, Anne Ruston… She’s been a senior minister in the government, dumped for Alex Antic.
Albanese defends cyber security moves after super fund hack
You might have seen reports over the last couple of days about superannuation funds being targeted by hackers.
Funds reported a small number of customers losing a combined half a million dollars and some customers’ data being breached:
Albanese is asked if the funds have failed their customers.
He says “businesses need to do better” on cyber security and says his government has been working on these issues.
My government has set up an office of cyber security. We have provided additional funding for the Australian Signals Directorate. We’ve set up a round table, including with the private sector, to deal with these issues. Businesses need to do better. We need to work together on these issues.
Albanese says Coalition has a lot to apologise for
We don’t often hear politicians apologising, and Albanese is asked if there’s anything he wants to say sorry for.
The answer is basically no, but he says the opposition has a lot to apologise for.
Peter Dutton is pretending. He says as late as last week, his budget reply had the 41,000 job cuts front and center. He never said sorry to the 42,000 veterans who were owed collectively $13bn, men and women who had worn our uniform, some of whom passed away while they were waiting for their entitlements. He never said sorry about that …
Before the last time the Coalition were elected, they said there’d be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to infrastructure, no cuts to the ABC, and they ripped the guts out of them in the 2014 budget.
Albanese on Victorian rail upgrades: ‘We’ll get it done’
Moving to questions – Albanese is asked about a report on Channel 7’s spotlight on nickel and EVs. He says he hasn’t seen the show.
He’s then asked when exactly Victorians will able to ride on a train to the airport?
Albanese says he wants to “get it done as soon as possible”, and is working with the state government and the airport to make it happen.
One of the good things that we have done here is to get not just the Commonwealth and the state government, but get the airport to the party as well, and you would have seen the signing of the agreement. One of the issues that was being holding up this project was the issue over whether the the station at the airport clear above ground or below ground. But we’ll get it done.
Albanese: Dutton has ‘discovered work rights’
Albanese also takes a dig at the Coalition’s work from home backflip this morning, saying Dutton is “pretending” his policy to cut 41,000 public service doesn’t exist.
The PM says his government’s policies on industrial relations – to make work from home more accessible, introducing same job, same pay laws, the right to disconnect and defining casualisation – have all been opposed by Dutton and the Coalition.
All of these changes have been opposed by Peter Dutton. He’s campaigned against them each and every day, and today he’s pretending. He’s pretending that the policies that he announced, including in the budget reply that was two weeks ago, including the cuts to 41,000 public servants just don’t exist, and everyone will just forget about all that. This is a new Peter Dutton who’s discovered work rights.
PM says Victorian Sunshine station upgrades essential in contrast with Dutton’s proposed cuts
Anthony Albanese is speaking in Melbourne – this time with state premier Jacinta Allan (who was absent at the last press conference the PM did in the state). He’s talking about upgrading Sunshine station, and the government’s support for the suburban rail loop.
Last week Dutton had promised to cut $2bn from the Sunshine station upgrades, but Albanese says the work is essential.
My Government will partner with the Allan government to deliver for Victorians. That’s what this $7bn commitment is about because unless you fix Sunshine rail, you can’t do the airport rail link. It’s a necessary precondition.
Here’s some detail from our Victorian state reporter, Benita Kolovos:
Taylor says Liberals ‘absolutely not’ moving away from nuclear after WFH policy retreat
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor is up next fronting up on the work from home policy change – the senior ministers have been out to answer questions on the backflip (as awkward as it’s been!)
Taylor also admits the policy was a “mistake”, and says it’s “tough” to get the balance right.
News Breakfast host James Glenday asks whether the Coalition could also back down on other major policies – like nuclear, which it’s been quiet on recently.
Taylor says he’s “absolutely not” moving away from the nuclear plan.
We absolutely not backing down on that, I can assure you, James and we’re not backing down to making sure we drive down prices of electricity.
Glenday asks how exactly the Coalition will pay for it. Taylor says:
Taylor: Nuclear power is through to 2050, and it’s substantially lower than the cost of Labor’s policies.
Glenday: It’s hundreds of billions of dollars no matter which way you twist it.
Taylor: Well that’s the energy system. The energy system much of which is paid for by a combination of the private sector and state governments. The piece we will finance, of course, is the nuclear generators which will deliver a return and that’s how we have modelled it, James.
The history of a backflip: what has the Coalition been saying about job cuts up until now?
There’d been a fair bit of back and forth on the details of the Coalition’s public service cuts – and that was before we even got to today’s backflip. Different shadow ministers have been saying somewhat different things about how those roles would be cut or where the freezes would be placed.
My colleague Sarah Basford-Canales took a look through the evolution of the policy a little earlier:
It’s also important to note that one of the other big new details we’ve got this morning is that the staff numbers will be brought down by 41,000 over five years.
