Dutton has also admitted he allowed the Labor Party to misrepresent the Coalition’s policy on public servants as it struck fear in women.
Speaking on Adelaide radio station FiveAA, Dutton said his pledge to end working from home in the public service led to women being concerned, as many favoured flexible working arrangements.
“We’ve made a mistake in relation to the policy, and we’ve allowed the Labor Party to misrepresent it, to somehow, you know, make women fear that the Liberal Party is not in favour of flexible working arrangements, which is just nonsense,” he said.
Dutton has said sorry after his WFH policy backflip.Credit: James Brickwood
The opposition leader confirmed there would be no change to public servants’ working arrangements under a Coalition government.
“We’ll have exactly the same arrangements in place, under the EBAs [enterprise bargaining agreements] that Labor has in place now, so that’s our policy,” he said.
“We admit that we’ve got it wrong, and I think we’ve, you know, been very frank and forthright this morning saying that we’ve got that policy wrong. And we, we admit the mistake.”
