Interview with Sabra Lane, ABC AM

7 April 2025

SABRA LANE: Senator Hume, thanks for talking to AM.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you, Sabra.

SABRA LANE: Why has the Coalition dropped its policy on forcing public servants back to the office and end working from home arrangements?

JANE HUME: Well, Sabra today will be releasing our full public service policy, and Peter Dutton and the Coalition have said that we will guarantee the delivery of the high quality, essential services that we know that Australians rely on. But we'll also reduce the cost and the size of the public service to reflect the most effective and efficient delivery approach possible. So part of this is about ending waste, Labor's very wasteful spending within the public service and restoring a sense of respect for taxpayers money. Now, part of that is that we will reduce the size of the public service by 41,000, and we'll do that over five years. Now, clearly this excludes military and reserves and will also protect the front line service delivery and the national security positions. But it will be done methodically. It will be done through a hiring freeze and also through natural attrition. There will be no forced redundancies. That's really important and finally, we've also said that we will continue to support flexible working arrangements for the public service. That has always been our position, but now it will also include opportunities to work from home. We very much respect those existing flexible working arrangements and we've said that we will enshrine them in future agreements so we're not changing the current flexible working arrangements and that includes work from home policies.

SABRA LANE: There are some, two significant policy changes there. The ending this edict that people must work from the office. Why? And you're also ending this idea of forced redundancies. Why are you ditching that as well?

JANE HUME: Well, let me start with the second. We actually never said that there were going to be forced redundancies. That was a Labor lie. It was a Labor lie from the beginning. We had always planned to sensibly reduce the size of the public service over time. Now, at the end of that period of time, five years, there will be a savings of around $7 billion a year to the taxpayer. We think that's really important to get the public service back to its right size, but ensure that it's also delivering the effective and efficient services that Australians rely on. We won't’ be touching frontline services, and that's why we won't be touching national security portfolios.

SABRA LANE: You also said on March the 3rd it'll be an expectation of a Dutton Liberal Government that all members of the APS work from the office five days a week. Why have you changed that policy?

JANE HUME: There were stories coming out around the right to work from home policy that was instituted by Labor, that was being rorted. Things like graduates were coming in and not being appropriately mentored or supervised. Stakeholders turning up to Canberra and being shown into meeting rooms where everybody had dialled in. Now we don't think that that's appropriate, but that can be managed.

SABRA LANE (INTERRUPTS): Sorry to the point of the question.

JANE HUME: But that can be managed by management. In the meantime, though, we've had feedback from right around Australia that has said that not only does those flexible working arrangements, which include work from home, are they relied upon by members of the public service around the country, but they are really important to them to maintain those positions, to be able to deliver the services that Australians expect and deserve. So we've listened to the feedback and that's why the policy has been changed.

SABRA LANE: If you're responding to feedback, doesn't that indicate the Coalition's out of touch in drawing up that policy in the first place?

JANE HUME: Well, certainly the feedback we had within Canberra was quite confronting. When we hear about stories like, uh, members of the public service travelling around the country in a caravan with their family and calling that work from home. You can understand why we feel that perhaps the policy had gone too far. However, it's really important that we maintain a policy within the public service that allows for flexible work. Now, that was never going to change. But what I can say, Sabra, is that the Labor Government, and particularly the Unions, established a massive scare campaign around this policy that implied that it wasn't just going to apply to Canberra public service, but it was going to apply to the private sector as well. Now, that's disgraceful and it frightened women right around the world.

SABRA LANE: The Trump White House has copped a lot of backlash because figures like Elon Musk have said work from home policies need to end. They're gutting the public service. They're cutting education. Are you worried that these things are playing in voters minds here in Australia, when they hear policies that are quite similar to that being put forward by the Coalition?

JANE HUME: Well, they're not policies that are similar to that being put forward by the Coalition. If that is the message that you're hearing, Sabra, that's a Labor lie. This is about delivering an effective and efficient public service for Australians because they rely on their public service. But what they don't want to see is a bloated bureaucracy. Of the 41,000 additional public servants that have been put on by the Labor Government, more than half of them are Canberra based. They've received an 11% pay rise, which I might add has not been accounted for in the Budget and yet Australians aren't receiving better quality public services for that additional spend. It now takes around 76 days to apply for an age pension. It was about 30 under a Coalition Government, it takes five times longer to get a low income card than it did under a Coalition Government. It takes 96 days to get, it takes 96 days to the PBS safety net, whereas it used to take a 30 under a Coalition. If you don’t think there is waste in the public service, you're fooling yourself.

SABRA LANE: Jane Hume, thanks for joining AM.

JANE HUME: Good to be with you, Sabra.