Nine News broke the story a month ago, but Sky News Australia political editor Andrew Clennell just confirmed it this afternoon.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s announcement that the Coalition would scrap working from home if it won last night’s federal election not only cost it the election but resulted in its utter wipeout.

I still hear businesses and managers today obsessing about a return of their employees to the workplace, rather than leveraging the flexibility of letting trusted staff work from home.

Well, according to Clennell, word is that the electorate not only believes that working from home is a lifestyle benefit—it sees it as an employment imperative.

Indeed, during the election campaign on hearing the opposition’s policy, Labor announced that working from home was now an Australian right and more so, is a “feature of modern business practice”.

Thanks to Clennell, we have learned that Dutton’s policy, led by Senator Jane Hume who now seeks a leadership role with Dutton losing his seat, was not put to the opposition front bench, was not put to the Coalition’s National Party for consideration, and was not debated outside the opposition leader’s inner circle.

It was a brain fart.

And as we know, the immediate polling backlash forced Dutton to reverse that policy within days. The damage though was done. Trust was lost. The electorate it seems, did not forget that the threat had been made. I thought it had.

It was stupidity influenced mainly by a US mindset where workforces are already punished with paltry benefits and limited annual leave compared with Australia.

What it boils down to is this.

We know that pre-Covid, major businesses were already downsizing their CBD footprints and forcing customers online. They wanted smaller workforces doing more. We know that work from home only became a feature of general work life because of the rapid spread of Covid-19. We also know that Covid-19 is as rampant today as it was in 2020. The pandemic has not ended despite the propaganda.

We therefore know that working from home limits the spread of airborne disease. And that’s good for businesses, even if just from a reduction in sick leave liability.

We also know some other benefits:

  • Saves employees disposable income in a cost of living crisis.
  • Saves employees hours per day in commute to and fro.
  • Saves a business rent and utilities.
  • Saves a workforce’s morale.

If then, you as a leader or manager can’t muster loyalty and performance from your employees who work from home, then it’s not your employees who are at fault. It’s you.

It’s your command, communication, recruitment and efficacy of training and development. You’ve failed to inspire.

It’s likely that you’re more a liability to your business than your workers who’d rather give you their lost hours each way to their jobs, no questions asked.

You’re also bad for your local communities who are being rewarded for doing commerce at the right place at the right time, which is the essence of capitalism: competition.

Remember that the fast internet revolution for business was, in part, meant to promote remote workplaces, much as remote learning and remote retail and remote services have become vogue.

If you’re forcing your customers to remote contact—yet are unwilling to innovate in terms of remote work, then you’re behind the eight ball as your future goes.

Anyway, Anthony Albanese’s Labor has promised the sanctity of work from home. Whatever an Albanese promise means.

© 2025 Adam Parker.