Public servants back in office five days a week under the Coalition

Opinion piece published in the Australian Financial Review

Monday, 3 March 2025

Last week, I asked one senior public servant about the rates of staff working from home in their department.

They couldn’t give me the data, but from their own experience they themselves were most productive when working from home.

But what about their team? Are they as productive without their boss?

Do they get the same leadership and guidance? Or have the same collaboration? Do they get mentored or acknowledged?

Recent research on productivity of working from home found that regardless of perceptions for employees and employers about their own productivity, in reality these arrangements led to a reduction in productivity, with the worst being fully remote workers.

Another academic paper found that after work from home arrangements were put in place, productivity fell by about 20%.

While time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, uninterrupted work hours shrank.

Employees spent less time networking, and received less coaching and 1:1 meetings with supervisors.

This is intuitive. ‘Learning on the job’ is hard to do when the people you’re learning from have to get on Zoom.

Australian Bureau of Statistics latest data on working arrangements shows that the number of Australians usually working from home has declined for the last three years to 36%.

Citing the collaboration and productivity that working in the office brings to their teams, large companies have all told their staff to return to the office.

A return to workplaces has even been adopted by the New South Wales Labor Government.

But Canberra’s experience is very different.

In 2019, only 22% of Australian Public Service Employee Census respondents worked away from the office or from home at least part of the time.

This increased to 53% in 2020 during the pandemic, and by 2022 was 55%.

It is now at 61%.

While these arrangements can work, in the case of the APS it has become a right rather than a request.

Work from home arrangements for public servants should only be in place when the arrangements work for the employee’s department, their team, and the individual.

This isn’t controversial.

In fact it is a guideline that was agreed by the Secretaries Board and the Australian Public Service Commission in 2023.

However, the Albanese Labor Government has ignored this and given public servants a blank cheque to work from home.

Led by the Community and Public Sector Union, Labor has made work from home a right for the individual, not an arrangement that works for all.

This is unsustainable.

There are plenty of public servants who know the current system is not working.

As this paper reported, some departments tell stakeholders to avoid meetings on Mondays or Fridays as no one is in the office.

In one instance, a stakeholder travelled to Canberra only to be shown into a meeting room where they were greeted by all departmental participants dialling in from home.

One public servant has spoken of a colleague working from home five days a week. The colleague is frequently uncontactable and thus unreliable.

Why? Because while they were working, they were also traveling around Australia with their family in a campervan.

The challenges faced by Australia today are significant.

We have been in a per capita recession for seven consecutive quarters - the longest on record.

27,000 small businesses have closed - a record high.

We are in an era of significant geopolitical competition. Yet we have become less cohesive and less safe since October 7 2023.

There are many talented, driven people in the Australian Public Service. And if elected, I want them to come back to the office with me to help solve these challenges.

Using existing frameworks, it will be an expectation of a Dutton Coalition Government that the APS will move towards returning to working five days a week from the office.

Exceptions can and will be made, of course; but they will be made where they work for everyone rather than be enforced on teams by an individual.

We will look to commence this change as soon as possible, while respecting the existing agreements the Government has already put in place.”

This is common sense policy that will instill a culture that focuses on the dignity of serving the public, a service that relies on the public to fund it, and a service that respects that funding by ensuring they are as productive as possible.

A public service that respects its resources and a Government that is disciplined in its fiscal management, we can deliver more effective and more efficient services for Australians.

Expecting more from Government is both reasonable and essential for a healthy democracy.

Under a Dutton Liberal Government, Australians will know that the taxes they pay are being spent in Australia’s best interests.