'Anti-ambitious': Sky News host Laura Jayes rips into Jacinta Allan's WFH decree as Coalition says policy would be a 'tragic outcome'

Sky News AU

5 days ago

Sky News host Laura Jayes has savaged Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan's plan to enshrine work from home rights in law while shadow industrial relations minister Tim Wilson said the policy would bring the state to its knees.
On Saturday Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced that she would draft legislation ahead of next November's state election to force employers to allow workers in both the public and private sector to work from home for two days a week where possible.
The policy has sparked the ire of countless industry and small business bodies who labelled the move an overreach and insisted the plan would severely impact their business models amidst a cost-of-living crisis.
Sky News host Laura Jayes ripped into the policy and said Ms Allan was drafting policies which were political breadwinners as opposed to meaningful reform.
'It's so low rent, so anti-ambitious there's been a lot of criticism for it,' Jayes said.
'This is government getting in people's lives when they don't need to be, I find that extraordinary after Covid particularly in Melbourne that people would want government in their lives and wouldn't want to just broker that with their employers."
Meanwhile the Coalition's industry relations spokesperson and Goldstein MP Tim Wilson labelled the policy as a 'political stunt' and reiterated that frontline workers would be left by the wayside.
'The Premier is gaslighting Victorian employees but in the process putting serious risks to jobs in Victoria as employers consider do, we really want to continue to operate here anymore,' Mr Wilson told Sky News.
'What is obvious to everybody is that teachers, nurses, tradies and retail workers are not going to get the benefit from this.
'The Victorian Premier is gaslighting tradies teachers retail workers and not actually taking workplace arrangements seriously because she thinks she can get some political benefits from a stunt rather than doings things that will actually drive-up wages and standards of living.'
Neighbouring states including New South Wales and South Australia are reportedly attempting to take advantage of the situation and lure businesses across the border.
Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter told The Australian the blanket rules would make it 'harder and less appealing' for companies to operate in Victoria and said that NSW 'may well be the beneficiary of that.'
Mr Wilson said the business community in Victoria viewed the move as counter-intuitive and concerning and said the policy would make the state far less attractive for entrepreneurs.
'Victorian employers are saying explicitly that if we enshrine this into law it's another nail in the coffin for the Victorian business community and when people are making choices about where they invest, where they make decisions to set up businesses they will look to other states,' Mr Wilson said.
'As a proud Victorian I see this as a tragic outcome – we already know from public data that all of the growth in employment in the Australian economy right now is on the back of public expenditure."
He also said there were serious legal gaps in the policy and reiterated that the private sector was subject to federal government regulation.
'They made an announcement they were going to guarantee an outcome – since the lawyers have said you can't do that for private sector workers, that's covered by federal law,' he said.
Federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said on Monday the government would not intervene to roll back Ms Allan's policy and insisted the government was not 'marking their homework.'
Mr Wilson claimed it was the Prime Minister's view that work from home arrangements should be negotiated between employers and employees.
'They won't say whether they back Jacinta Allan's plan because they know she is gaslighting the Victorian public, they know what she is doing is unconstitutional,' Mr Wilson said.