Australia’s Opposition Drops Plan to End Remote Work for Public Servants | Election News

Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton says election pledge was a ‘mistake’.

Australia’s main opposition party has abandoned its election promises to end remote work arrangements for public servants and cut tens of thousands of government jobs, following a decline in poll support.

Peter Dutton, the leader of the centre-right Liberal Party, admitted on Monday that the proposals were a “mistake.”

“I think it’s important that we acknowledge that and recognize it. Our intention was to ensure that taxpayers’ hard-earned money, which is used to pay wages, is spent efficiently,” Dutton said in an interview with Channel Nine.

Dutton, a former police detective from Queensland, had previously pledged to require government employees to work in the office five days a week and eliminate 41,000 positions from the public sector.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who last month called a national election for May 3, questioned his opponent’s sudden reversal.

“Peter Dutton wants to undermine workers’ rights and, in particular, doesn’t understand modern families or the crucial role that both women and men play in managing their households,” Albanese told reporters.

Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party has gained momentum against Dutton’s Liberal Party-led coalition in recent polls, though the race remains tight.

In the latest Newspoll survey released on Sunday, Labor led the Coalition 52-48 in a head-to-head matchup, gaining one percentage point from the previous poll.

Cost-of-living issues, including a severe housing affordability crisis, have dominated the election campaign.

While Labor or the Coalition are almost certain to secure the largest share of the vote, opinion polls suggest a strong possibility of a hung parliament.

Australia last saw a hung parliament in 2010, when former Prime Minister Julia Gillard relied on the support of the Australian Greens and three independent MPs to form a minority government.