The head of the opposition of Australia abandoned an electoral promise to end the work from home options for civil servants after a reaction.
Peter Dutton said on Monday that his national liberal coalition had “made a mistake” and apologized.
The Australians will vote during an election on May 3 and the coalition had presented the policy as part of a package – including thousands of employment deletions – aimed at improving the efficiency of the public sector.
However, criticisms, including the practicing Labor government, said that the end of work from domestic provisions disproportionately disproportionate women.
“We were wrong and apologized for this,” Dutton told journalists at a press conference.
He said politics had only targeted public service workers in Canberra, but accused the work of depicting him in a “smear campaign”.
The Minister of Ghost Finance, Jane Hume, said that the coalition now did not propose any change to flexible work arrangements.
“We have listened to and understand that flexible work, including work at home, is part of the best of all the workforce,” she said in a statement.
The coalition also clarified its proposal to reduce 41,000 public service jobs to help finance its other political promises. He has long been invited to detail the departments that he will find the savings, and a figure in the key part had suggested that forced redundancies were on the table.
However, on Monday, Ms. Hume said that the party – if it was elected – would try to reach the reduction over five years thanks to a job frost and natural attrition.
She said that the coalition had “never” declared that there would be forced redundancies and had “always planned to significantly reduce the size of the public service over time”.
Dutton seemed to contradict her, saying: “We have had bad policy in this regard and we have clearly indicated our position.”
The Labor Government seized the policy changes during the campaign on Monday.
“It just shows that Peter Dutton is everywhere in the shop. Peter Dutton is trying to give himself the worst lift of Australian history,” Murray Watt Minister Watt told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“But the problem for him is that he can change what he says, but he cannot change who he is.”
Some government and industry leaders around the world have tried to reign in the flexibility of the workplace lately.
During his first day in power, US President Donald Trump signed a decree requiring government employees to return to the office five days a week, and companies like Amazon also demand that the staff return to the full -time office.
But politics has proven to be unpopular in Australia, polls showing that the cost of living cost are the main concern for most voters.
