☕️ Dutton’s WFH backflip

As you’ll see below, we are well into the thick of the election campaign now.

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“My time in politics is coming to an end, and I’m not gonna say when that’s gonna happen, but I want the people coming through that are going to carry on my legacy”
Australian Senator Pauline Hanson on her daughter, Lee Hanson, joining One Nation, in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.

$110 billion
The combined amount lost across Australia’s 200 largest publicly-listed companies yesterday – marking the biggest one-day hit to the share market since May 2020. The 4.2% decline in share value follows investor panic triggered by Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement and fears of a global recession.

29 June 2022 was the shortest day ever directly recorded since scientists began using atomic clocks to measure its rotational speed. On June 29, 2022, Earth’s spin was 1.59 milliseconds under 24 hours.

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The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published an updated set of rules for social media influencers, noting the “increasing role” of influencers in political life.

It follows an AEC investigation into Abbie Chatfield’s recent podcast interviews with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt.

The AEC concluded Chatfield did not breach any electoral laws.

The AEC manages Australia’s electoral matters.

Under national laws, it has the power to crack down on misinformation relating to the voting process, such as registration and how votes are counted.

However, it does not have the power to regulate truth during an election campaign. A 2023 Senate committee recommended “truth in political advertising” legislation, although the government has not adopted the proposal.

Some political content requires authorisation, which acknowledges that the content could influence the way someone votes.

Authorisation is needed when:

Yesterday, the AEC provided updated advice on ‘cross-posting’ or ‘collab’ posts between politicians and influencers.

An influencer’s video or reel would need authorisation if it was to be cross-posted with a politician.

However, the politician is required to add the authorisation, not the influencer.

The AEC said it is working to communicate this “technical aspect” with politicians and candidates directly.

In a statement, the AEC recognised that content creators have a growing role in the run up to an election.

“Social media influencers play an increasing role in informing and educating the public about politics and Australia’s electoral system”.

The AEC noted that compliance with authorisation has been “good”.

“In almost all cases breaches have been relatively quickly rectified when requested by the AEC.“

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

The Coalition has reversed its promise to force public service employees back to offices full-time if it wins the upcoming election.

The decision comes as the Coalition is mid-campaign for the Federal Election, which will be held 3 May.

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume initially put forward the policy to end work from home arrangements for the public sector last month.

However, on Monday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton admitted the initial policy was “a mistake”.

Abut 365,400 people work for a federal government agency, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This includes the departments of finance, health, and defence force personnel.

The most recent Australian Public Service (APS) survey showed 61% of public servants worked away from the office at least “some of the time” in 2024.

Under the APS enterprise agreement, which sets out pay and conditions, employees can “request ad-hoc flexible working arrangement(s)”.

In early March, Hume said a Coalition Government would make it an “expectation” that all APS staff work from the office full-time.

Hume said working in the office full-time would help boost productivity in the public service. In an address to the Menzies Institute, Hume said: “While work from home arrangements can work, in the case of the APS, it has become a right that is creating inefficiency.”

Dutton also said during a press conference: “People refusing to go back to work in Canberra is not acceptable.“

In early March, Dutton was asked how this policy would impact working women specifically.

In response, he insisted there are “plenty of job sharing arrangements” available.

This refers to two or more people having the same role and splitting working hours between them.

Labor was against the Coalition’s policy for public servants.

Over the weekend, Labor published analysis claiming that job-sharing would force women to abandon flexible full-time work and scale back to part-time hours, reducing their salaries by up to $740 a week.

The Community and Public Sector Union also accused Dutton of committing to “rolling back the clock on workers’ rights”.

On Monday, the Coalition announced it has backflipped on its plan. This means there will be no changes to flexible work within the public service if it wins the election.

“There will be no mandated minimum number of days for public servants to work in the office,” Senator Hume said in a statement.

Hume accused Labor of running a “scare campaign” against the Coalition on the policy.

Speaking to reporters this morning, Dutton said: “We got it wrong and we have apologised for it”.

“We will make sure that we can help families and that's exactly what our positive plan is about.”

The Coalition has also clarified that it will not force any redundancies across the APS. Instead, the party estimates it will reduce the public service by 41,000 over five years through a hiring freeze and natural attrition — where people who resign or retire aren’t replaced.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

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The study, which surveyed six key regions, including Hobart, Newcastle, Perth and the Sunshine Coast, found a marked reduction in plastic waste across five of six locations.

Along with the decreased plastic pollution, Senior CSIRO Researcher Dr Denise Hardesty said the survey identified a 16% increase in the number of coastal areas “with no plastic debris at all.” Although there are still areas of concern, Hardesty said Australians are “becoming more aware of the harmful effects of plastic waste on people, communities and wildlife.”

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Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

In case you missed it, over the weekend American pro-golfer Ryan McCormick taped his mouth shut for an entire round of golf in an effort to control his temper.

The 33-year-old said he’s “been having not-so-fun times this year on the golf course,” finding himself “pretty angry and mad.” McCormick claims he’s “tried about everything” to deal with his frustrations, “and I just figured I’d shut myself up.”

“I was hoping maybe that it would help me. Can’t say that it did or didn’t,” he reflected, after failing to make it past the first round of The Landings Golf and Athletic Club tournament in Savannah.

Reporting by George Finlayson.

Yesterday in Australia, more than $100 billion was wiped from the Australian share market.

It’s all because of the tariffs that were imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on all countries, including Australia, last week.

To understand in more detail why this has happened, and what it means for the average Australian, TDA’s Editor-in-Chief Billi FitzSimons interviews the Chief Economist at the Australia Institute Greg Jericho.