After promising to sack tens of thousands of public servants, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has doubled down on his culture war against workers, particularly women, by promising to end work-from-home arrangements.

Dutton said it is “common sense”, arguing that “taxpayers are working harder than ever to pay the bills and housing public servants in Canberra refusing to go to work”.

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But data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that last year 36% of people worked from home, down 1% since the previous year.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume claimed on March 3 that “bureaucrats” had been given a “blank cheque to work from home” and were a drain on the public purse.

She cited a United States-based Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research paper which said working from home reduced productivity by about 20% and a Coalition government would force all federal public servants to return to the office five days per week, with limited exceptions.

The Stanford study however, did not say that. Rather, it found that “many employers like remote work because it reduces floorspace needs, raises productivity, and lowers quits”.

It quoted from a December Survey of........

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