Australia election 2025 stay: ‘We made a mistake’ – Dutton apologises as Coalition backflips on work at home coverage and public sector cuts

There’d been a good bit of forwards and backwards on the small print of the Coalition’s public service cuts, earlier than we even acquired to immediately’s backflip.

Totally different shadow ministers have been saying considerably various things about how these roles could be reduce, or the place the freezes could be positioned.

My colleague Sarah Basford-Canales took a glance by the evolution of the coverage a little bit earlier:

It’s additionally essential to notice that one of many different large new particulars we’ve acquired this morning is that the workers numbers might be introduced down by 41,000 over 5 years.

Albanese reiterates that ‘social media companies have a social responsibility’, however particulars on ban not forthcoming

Final week a Time journal article about Albanese’s social media reforms and the ban on social media for below 16s described the PM as having “undeniable everyman charisma”.

Nova hosts ask Albanese about these reforms, who provides kudos to Whippa for his advocacy on the difficulty, and says the crackdown on the “social harm” that these platforms trigger is critical.

The mums and dads who’ve turned what are private tragedies into not wanting that to occur to some other father or mother to lose a younger one, they’ve proven braveness and dignity, and it’s been fairly extraordinary.

And I need children off their telephones and out [on] the sports activities area. Social media firms have a social accountability, and we have to simply recognise that that is inflicting social hurt, and I’m actually happy with what my authorities has achieved.

The modifications are attributable to come into impact in December this 12 months, however we don’t have a design or plan on how precisely it should work. An age assurance trial is at present underway, however particulars on its success or in any other case will come after the election.

You’ll be able to learn extra particulars on the place we’re at on the coverage from my colleague Josh Taylor:

PM will get caught into Coalition WFH coverage reversal

Anthony Albanese is becoming a member of Nova Sydney, and first query is how he’s holding up after falling off a stage in Newcastle on Thursday.

The PM laughs it off and repeats (as our loyal weblog legends will keep in mind) the “I fell for Newcastle a long time ago” line.

He’s then requested about why college children get 12 weeks of holidays a 12 months whereas their mother and father solely get 4. Albanese takes the chance to take a stab on the Coalition’s work at home backflip.

That’s one of many explanation why we’ve [Labor] achieved points like working from residence, put that within the industrial relations laws.

And I’m not fairly positive the place they’re for the time being, however the Coalition actually stated they’d cease working from residence. They didn’t wish to help it. At the moment, they’ve gone from defending to pretending that they weren’t.

Stepping away from the election marketing campaign for a second…

Medical doctors in NSW will go forward with their deliberate strike motion on Tuesday and Thursday this week, the NSW authorities says, in breach of the orders of the Industrial Relations Fee.

The state well being minister, Ryan Park,, says motion by the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF) will disrupt hospitals and well being services together with emergency departments and surgical procedures. Park says preparations are urgently underway to handle the impression on sufferers, and people with surgical procedures postponed might be contacted:

We don’t want this. We reinstated the unbiased IRC for this very cause. The IRC permits staff to advance their claims with out the boundaries of the wages cap the earlier authorities imposed, with out endangering the welfare and security of the group …

I share the group’s need to see our healthcare staff paid extra – it’s why we’ve provided a ten.5% multi-year wage will increase (on high of the 4.5% already in pockets) and sat down with unions over a few years to ship these pay will increase.

Medical doctors are looking for pay rises of as much as 30% and the state authorities has struggled to speak down calls for from unions after agreeing to an as much as 40% pay rise for police in November.

Watt promotes Labor battery coverage nearly as good for the outer areas

Watt can be spruiking the federal government’s battery coverage introduced over the weekend.

He says photo voltaic panels have seen the next uptake in outer suburbs over the inside metropolis, and the coverage will assist these areas (areas that Labor wants to carry, or acquire on the Coalition).

He instructed ABC Information Breakfast there are additionally low and no value financing choices accessible for these on decrease incomes, to cope with the upper upfront value of the know-how.

Peter Dutton and his colleagues like to explain photo voltaic panels as some inner-city latte factor, however folks within the outer areas are taking over photo voltaic as a result of they understand it’s an effective way to avoid wasting on their payments. That is the subsequent instance of our give attention to value of residing.

Labor begins assaults on Coalition coverage backflip

The employment minister, Murray Watt, has jumped on the bandwagon to clobber the Coalition over their coverage change, saying Dutton is within the “process of giving himself the worst facelift in Australian history” by saying he’s now a work at home supporter.

Watt tells ABC Information Breakfast it could take “so many years” to chop 41,000 staff out of the general public service by pure attrition and hiring freezes. He additionally says Dutton received’t have the ability to make the billions of {dollars} in financial savings required to pay for his nuclear coverage:

Over the previous few weeks, Peter Dutton and his colleagues have known as working from residence a vacation, they’ve accused folks working from residence of being unproductive …

It could take so a few years to chop the roles in the way in which he’s speaking about, he received’t have the ability to obtain it and obtain the financial savings he’s counting on to pay for his nuclear reactors and all the opposite insurance policies. Peter Dutton can’t be believed on any of the insurance policies.

Again to Peter Dutton, Sarah Abo is actually making it awkward for the opposition chief – testing him on whether or not pure attrition was all the time the plan as he’s simply claimed.

Have a little bit take a look at the change:

Abo: [You were] initially concentrating on 41,000 jobs. Now you’re strolling again from that. How will you discover the billions you want on your Medicare plan?

Dutton: Effectively, Sarah, that was all the time the plan, that there could be pure attrition and a hiring freeze, and that achieved over…

Abo: But it surely wasn’t the plan. You needed to chop again 41,000 jobs. You needed to introduce working from residence. You’ve walked again from each of these. How can they’ve each all the time been the plan? It doesn’t make sense.

Dutton: Sarah, you requested, you requested a query concerning the costing. There’s no change to the costing in any respect, as a result of the unique plan of the pure attrition and the freezing was what we’d all the time had. It’s the way in which by which Labor’s contorted that into one thing else.

Dutton had claimed in his finances reply speech that the coverage to chop 41,000 public service staff would save about $7bn.

He says there’s no change to the costings however now the coverage will happen over 5 years and thru pure attrition and hiring freezes.

Analysis finds as much as 60,000 youngsters below 18 are playing

New analysis has discovered as much as 60,000 youngsters aged below 18 are playing, and spending greater than $18m a 12 months.

The stunning findings by the Australia Institute present 30% of 12-17 12 months olds gamble, and virtually half (46%) of 18-19 12 months olds are betting. In different phrases, Australians are beginning to gamble earlier than they’re legally sufficiently old to take action.

The Alliance for Playing Reforms’s CEO, Martin Thomas, says the findings are a results of playing firms concentrating on youngsters at a younger age:

There’s proof that the playing business targets children as younger as 14 years previous by social media, urging them to obtain playing advertisements and the saturation of playing advertisements round our main soccer codes can be luring youngsters to gamble.

It’s each alarming and tragic to grasp that the variety of youngsters playing below the authorized age would fill the MCG six occasions over.

Peter Dutton has apologised over the Coalition’s coverage to drive extra public servants to return to the workplace.

The Opposition chief is on the At the moment Present and says he’s “listening to what people have to say”, and like Hume, has additionally blamed Labor for implying that the coverage would additionally apply to the personal sector.

Sarah Abo grills him, beginning off by asking: “will you be asking for forgiveness from female voters?”

Dutton replies: “I think I am today”:

We by no means had any intention for work at home modifications that we have been proposing in Canberra to use throughout the personal sector, however the Prime minister was on the market saying that, it was only a lie …

We’ve made a mistake in relation to the coverage. We apologise for that. And we’ve handled it.

There’s been a good bit of confusion over how precisely the occasion would axe 41,000 public service jobs. The Coalition’s coverage on that has additionally taken an enormous step again, with the promise of no redundancies. However Dutton claims that was all the time the coverage.

That was all the time the plan, that there could be pure attrition and a hiring freeze and that achieved.

The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, says the Coalition will “enshrine” office flexibility because the occasion backflips on its earlier demand to get public sector staff again into the workplace.

Hume instructed Sky Information Labor has pursued an “unfair scare campaign” over the coverage and stated the change was due suggestions exhibiting the general public needed versatile work to be enshrined:

We’ve listened to suggestions from proper across the nation, not simply Canberra primarily based public servants … who’re telling us that versatile work is one thing that they wish to see enshrined.

Now, let’s face it, it all the time was going to be enshrined. Versatile work was all the time right here to remain. However what our concern now could be that a part of that versatile work must also be a capability to work at home the place it’s acceptable to take action, and that hasn’t modified.

Hume says the Labor scare marketing campaign implied the coverage would additionally apply to the personal sector however she guarantees that was by no means the case.

The opposite facet of the general public service coverage was to chop 41,000 public servants. Hume says that can now be achieved over the house of 5 years, with no pressured redundancies.

We’ll additionally be sure that the dimensions of the general public service is lowered by 41,000 over a interval of 5 years. That might be achieved by pure attrition, and it will likely be achieved by a hiring freeze. There might be no pressured redundancies.

Krishani Dhanji right here with you on week two of the federal election marketing campaign.

We’ve seen fairly the backflip this morning from the Coalition on their earlier coverage to get public service staff again into the workplace. The demand for “all” public servants to return is being deserted and the promise to slash 41,000 public servants is being wound again with affirmation there might be no pressured redundancies if the Liberals win the election.

There’ll be loads of response to that this morning.

On the Labor facet, the occasion has introduced over the weekend a $2.3bn battery promise for households and so they’ll little question be out selling that once more this morning.

So buckle in – it’s going to be an enormous one!