Tim Wilson says Coalition won't revisit ban on working from home as ‘happy workers' are more productive
Shadow industrial relations minister Tim Wilson says work-from-home arrangements should be negotiated between employees and bosses, as 'happy workers tend to be more productive'.
Wilson said Dutton's controversial policy to wind back flexible working for public servants – dumped midway through the election campaign in an embarrassing backdown – was a 'heavy solution' that the Coalition wouldn't resurrect in this term.
The shadow minister said such working arrangements should be worked out in individual workplaces, based on productivity.
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'If employers can find a pathway … and employees can find a pathway, together in partnership for working from home because it works in their best interest, then that would always be the baseline at which I'd approach workplace arrangements,' Wilson told Sky News on Sunday.
'It's not for me to dictate what those terms are.'
Dutton's controversial policy to restrict working from home for public servants has been blamed in post-election analysis as a major factor in turning off professional women and young people from voting Liberal. Nationals leader David Littleproud, during the short-lived split between his party and the Liberals, claimed several times 'the work-from-home fiasco hurt us'.
Other Liberal members have indicated since the election they were supportive of flexible working arrangements. Andrew Bragg, the shadow minister for productivity, last week said 'we believe in individual choice and back flexibility at work', citing studies showing such arrangements could boost productivity.
Wilson, who bucked the nationwide trend and became the only Liberal to win a new seat by reclaiming the seat of Goldstein he lost in 2022 to Zoe Daniel, echoed similar sentiments.
He told Sky News that workers should 'have a sense of ownership and responsibility of their workplace arrangements, in partnership with their employers'.
'When it comes to the politics of [Dutton's policy], I think a lot of people looked at it and ... it was probably interpreted, anyway, as a heavy solution to what should be, for the most part, a productivity managed problem between employers and employees.'
Wilson said the WFH policy was raised with him 'from time to time' while campaigning for Goldstein, but that equally he had employers who felt they 'no longer had a balanced relationship with their employees and wanted redress'.
'We do know that happy workers tend to be more productive, and there's certainly circumstances where people working from home can be more productive than they might otherwise be,' Wilson said.
'Because of commute times, because of their capacity to balance out their work and family lives, based on what their needs are, but it can vary circumstance to circumstance.'
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In a report last week, the Productivity Commission backed flexible working.
'Workers do not need to be in the office full-time to experience the benefits of in-person interactions. As a result, hybrid work (working some days remotely and some days in the office) tends to be beneficial to productivity, or at least is not detrimental to productivity,' the report said.
'Remote work also reduces breaks and sick days, and results in less distractions.'
Also on Sunday, shadow finance minister James Paterson said he still believed Australia should boost defence spending to 3% of GDP – a policy outlined by Dutton.
Dutton had committed to the figure late in the election campaign, but did not specify how it would be spent.
Paterson, speaking on the ABC's Insiders, said the Coalition would provide details 'closer to the next election'.
'There's plenty of good advice out there in open source that suggests areas of investment. One is spending to resolve the recruitment and retention crisis facing the ADF. Another is to make sure that we have the munitions stockpile that we would need to survive a conflict, God forbid, if that should break out,' Paterson said.
'Other things [include] hardening the northern bases, the air and missile defence, drone defence, purchasing our own lethal drones.'
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