Victorians could soon have the right to work from home two days a week under Australian-first laws
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, will use Labor's state conference on Saturday to announce the proposal, which, if passed by parliament, would make the state the first in the country to legislate the right to work remotely.
Allan will tell party faithful if a job can reasonably be done from home, employees would have the legal right to do so for at least two days a week.
The law would apply to both public and private sector workers, though how it would be enforced and other specifics were not outlined ahead of her speech.
In a statement, the premier said that working from home was popular, it saved families money, cut congestion and allowed greater workforce participation, particularly among women with children, carers and people with a disability.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
'Work from home works for families and it's good for the economy,' Allan said.
'Not everyone can work from home, but everyone can benefit.'
The announcement sets the stage for a political fight in the lead-up to the November 2026 state election, given the Coalition opposition has previously signalled plans to return the public service to the office full-time.
The shadow treasurer, James Newbury, told the Herald Sun in February that the government 'should be requiring public servants to work from the office' but stopped short of confirming whether the Coalition would enforce a mandate.
The issue was also a flashpoint at the recent federal election, with Peter Dutton forced mid-campaign to reverse a policy to restrict work from home arrangements for public servants due to public backlash.
Allan's statement said consultation on the legislation would be led by the Department of Premier and Cabinet and would cover the types of businesses and the size of businesses that would be included, as well as the definition of remote work and who was able to do it.
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
It stressed the consultation process 'won't determine whether working from home should be a right' as that position had already been decided. Instead, it would focus on 'the appropriate laws to reflect it'. It said 'several legislative options were available'.
Allan will be left to rally the room of 600 Victorian Labor delegates, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, unable to attend as he will be at the Garma festival in the Northern Territory.
It will mean the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, will be the most senior party figure at the two-day event and placed in an uncomfortable position as delegates vote on a review of the Aukus submarine deal he has strongly backed.
Other urgency resolutions up for debate include a call for the federal government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state and impose sanctions on Israel, rejection of the Allan government's proposed protest laws – described as 'anti-democratic and regressive' – and for all 44 public housing tower sites slated for redevelopment to remain in public hands.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians' text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it
The Productivity Commission is examining whether technology firms should be exempted from copyright rules that stop companies from mining text and data to train artificial intelligence models. The PC, in its interim report into 'harnessing data and the digital economy', used copyright as a case study for how Australia's existing regulatory framework could be adapted to manage the risks of artificial intelligence. A key recommendation from the interim report was that the federal government should conduct a sweeping review of regulations to plug potential gaps that could be exploited by 'bad actors' using AI. Scott Farquhar, the co-founder of software company Atlassian, last week called for an 'urgent' overhaul of Australia's copyright rules, arguing they were out of step with other comparable countries. Farquhar said creating exemptions for text and data mining to train large language models 'could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia'. That suggestion has been rejected by the Copyright Agency, a not-for-profit organisation that collects and distributes royalties to thousands of copyright holders. The agency has argued instead for the government to create a new compensation scheme for creators of content used by tech companies to train their AI models. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Stephen King, one of two commissioners leading the PC's inquiry into harnessing the opportunities of the digital economy, said: 'Copyright is a great example of where Australia needs to sit back and ask: 'Are our laws fit for purpose with AI?'' 'The obvious harm is that an AI company may use copyright materials without providing appropriate compensation. On the other side, we want the development of AI-specific tools that use that copyrighted material,' King said. 'It may be possible to say, can we approach AI the same way we have approached copyright in other ways, through copyright collections. Music is played everywhere, so we have set up collecting societies that are authorised under our competition laws, and they act on behalf of singers, songwriters and creators.' King said the PC was asking for feedback on other options, before a final recommendation by the end of the year. 'We have a fair dealing exemption that doesn't include text and data mining, maybe that should be an exemption – as long as AI companies are gaining legal copies and they have paid for it.' In its third of five thematic reports, the commission said artificial intelligence could resuscitate Australia's moribund productivity. PC modelling showed that even the most conservative estimate was that AI would deliver a $116bn boost to the economy over the next decade. King said that this translated into a $4,300 kicker to the average Australian's real wage in 10 years' time, and that the actual benefits could be much larger. The commission advised against creating an overarching AI-specific piece of legislation, and warned that clumsy or excessive regulation risked stifling the technology's potentially transformative benefits. That message is likely to be well received by the government, with Andrew Leigh, the assistant minister for productivity, backing this approach. But King said the commission was not arguing for a minimalist approach to AI regulation. 'It's not light-touch at all. What we are saying is that AI is going to make it easier, cheaper and faster for bad actors to engage in harmful conduct. But most of that harmful conduct is already illegal,' he said. 'Let's work out where the harms are and see whether they are covered by existing law. And if they are, let's make sure the regulators have the resources and powers to stop the bad actors.' The PC's interim report also backed changing privacy rules to incorporate an outcomes-based approach, rather than a 'box-ticking' exercise where businesses 'comply with the letter of the law but not the spirit of it'. The commission said the government 'should support new pathways to allow individuals and businesses to access and share data that relates to them'.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Mark Latham escapes censure motion for now – but faces NSW privileges committee
The independent NSW MP, Mark Latham, has been referred to the privileges committee over allegedly revealing privileged material but has avoided for now a censure in the state's legislative council. The NSW upper house voted on Tuesday night to refer Latham to the powerful privileges committee but delayed the condemnation motion until October when it expects to have the results of the privileges investigation. Labor's leader in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, had pushed for a censure motion but the opposition, Greens and some of the minor party members voted against the move, arguing members should wait for the results of the privileges inquiry. Two MLCs from the Shooters and Fishers party abstained, and the Marijuana party member, Jeremy Buckingham, voted with the government. The government lost the vote 22 to 16. Sharpe argued Latham, a former federal Labor leader and then One Nation MP, should be condemned over three specific incidents. This included that he allegedly breached privilege in relation to certain documents about the former police commissioner Karen Webb and investigations into gifts of gin that were produced on the basis that only parliamentarians could view them. Sharpe also called out Latham's 'problematic behaviour' of taking 'photographs of his colleagues at the chamber and sending them to a third party alongside derogatory remarks about their appearance'. She detailed Latham's use of parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from defamation proceedings, to share the medical records of independent MP Alex Greenwich. The records had been part of a workplace sexual harassment and vilification claim that Greenwich won against Latham. 'The idea that a member would stand in this place and reveal private medical reports, no matter where they got them from, or how they're there, is a gross abuse of privilege as well,' Sharpe told parliament. Last month the Daily Telegraph published messages, reportedly sent by Latham to his former partner Nathalie Matthews, in which he allegedly shared photos of female colleagues and made disparaging comments about their appearance. During his response to the censure motion, Latham said of allegations that he breached parliamentary privilege relating to documents about the police commissioner's conduct: 'It's got nothing to do with national security, police techniques, policing methodology. 'There's nothing in it that warranted a non-publication order. It's about the integrity, the honesty of the police commissioner.' He also resurrected a 2015 sexual scandal that embroiled several ALP figures, and accused the state premier, Chris Minns, of double standards in his treatment of sexual allegations.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
New ‘fundamentally different' airline to launch Australia flights in 2026
A new domestic airline hoping to challenge Qantas and Virgin in Australia is set to launch in 2026, according to the CEO. Koala Airlines said its model is fundamentally different from previous entrants into the market. The prospective airline follows the collapse of budget airline Bonza, which went into voluntary administration after just over a year of operation. 'We're not trying to be Qantas or Virgin – our model is fundamentally different, and that's why we've attracted the backing we have,' Koala's founding CEO Bill Astling told The Australian Financial Review. 'We've deliberately kept a low profile – not because we're stalling, but because we're building something with a long-term, sustainable foundation. We've learned from the past – both ours and the industry's – and we're taking a disciplined, strategic approach. 'We're on track to start operations late next year. But we're not in the business of giving our competitors a 12-month head start.' In 2019, Koala Airlines acquired Desert Air Safaris, an air tours and charter flights company that operated for over 50 years throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. The airline's website said: 'With a rich heritage to build on, our focus is clear: we aim to distinguish ourselves by our new initiatives and innovations that complement rather than compete with established norms.' However, Koala does not yet have a fleet of planes for the domestic aviation market and has not disclosed details of its flight paths. Bonza, which similarly marketed itself as a competitor to Qantas and Virgin, was the first budget airline to launch in Australia since 2007. It cited aircraft shortages and a lack of access to Sydney airport among the reasons for its collapse.
