'It's also enabled people to overcome the tyranny of distance in this great country'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has emphasised the benefits of working from home after the Coalition unveiled their pre-election policy to end remote work for public servants.
The prime minister, in a press conference in Sydney, said working from home has a "range of advantages."
"One of those is less time travelling, whether that be in a private motor vehicle or on public transport to and from home," Albanese told reporters.
"It's also enabled people to overcome the tyranny of distance in this great country. As I've travelled around, I've met people who've moved into regional Australia and are working in our capital cities."
According to the prime minister, working from home also has benefits for modern Australian families.
"It is also meant for working families where both parents are working," he said. "[Working from home] has enabled them to work full time and therefore, it has increased workforce participation, particularly for women."
The prime minister made the remarks after Coalition leader Peter Dutton announced a pre-election policy to end working from home for public servants.
"Our desire is to get public servants who are, at the moment, refusing to go back to work … and that is not acceptable," Dutton said as quoted by ABC News.
But Dutton's plan may introduce more disadvantages for Australia's workforce than benefits, according to various reports.
Government analysis in the Telegraph revealed that workers could spend up to $5,000 if they start going back to the office.
"The figures which are there are actually more if you are living in Sydney or Melbourne," Albanese said. "The fact is that people who are working from home are providing less traffic congestion, whether that be on the buses, in their cars, less crowding on public transport as well."
"It makes an enormous difference. It makes a difference to them in terms of their hip pocket."
There are also reports that the office-return order to public servants may have a "flow-on effect" to private sector workers, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
ACTU said ending work-from-home arrangements would likely impact one in three workers nationally.
"Blanket orders summoning people back to the workplace will leave thousands without access to work-from-home settings and other flexible work options," said Michele O'Neil, ACTU president, in a statement.
"This would be an instant productivity killer, because flexible work has pushed women's workforce participation to record highs, as one million women joined the workforce in the last four years."
More than 600,000 employees in Australia are working from home to spend less time commuting or to save money, while a further 320,000 employees do so due to childcare or other caring responsibilities, according to ACTU.
"Working people in our outer suburbs face some of the longest and most expensive commutes," O'Neil said. "Forcing hundreds of thousands of workers back on the roads will mean less time with kids and more time in traffic."
This flow-on effect that ACTU warned about comes as data from Robert Half previously revealed that 89% of employers in Australia admit to being strongly influenced by other organisations' return-to-office mandates.
Nicole Gorton, director at Robert Half, said they are observing a "domino effect" in the return-to-office landscape this year that is leaving businesses to confirm.
"Employers are back in the driver's seat and dictate office attendance, knowing others are doing the same," Gorton said.
Job ads offering working from home have only slightly declined since peaking in 2023, according to a recent insight from SEEK Australia.
It showed that 9.5% of job ads in the country still reference work from home, only 1.5 percentage points lower than the post-COVID peak.
