Peter Dutton was gifted a golden opportunity by Albo’s disastrous Voice referendum – but he threw it all away with one of the dumbest policy moves in Australian history, writes LEVI PARSONS

There’s an avalanche of criticism that can be levelled at Peter Dutton’s lacklustre election campaign.

From his pie-in-the-sky nuclear power plan, to the ill-advised proposal to create an Australian version of Elon Musk’s DOGE, and his pledge to hold a referendum on deporting dual citizens convicted of serious crimes.

But nothing was more of a misstep than Dutton’s tough-talking promise in January to end work-from-home arrangements for tens of thousands of public servants.

It wasn’t just dumb. It was perhaps one of the dumbest policy decisions in modern memory – and even cost him his own seat of Dickson.

The idea was to rev-up tradies, frontline workers and anyone who doesn’t have the option to log onto a laptop and toil away in their pyjamas on the couch all day.

Dutton hoped these workers would say to themselves ‘yeah get those bludgers and Gen Z sooks back to the office’.

Indeed, the policy may have been a winner for that demographic, as well as bosses unsympathetic to your self-absorbed need for a ‘work-life balance’.

But here’s the problem.

Nothing was more of a misstep than Dutton’s tough-talking promise in January to end work-from-home arrangements for tens of thousands of public servants

The Australian Bureau of statistics estimates that four out of 10 Aussies now regularly WFH (stock image)

The Australian Bureau of statistics estimates that four out of 10 Aussies now regularly WFH.

So that one unfathomably stupid policy decision instantly alienated 37 per cent of all Australian workers who feared they could eventually suffer the same fate if the policy was adopted by the private sector.

Good luck winning a majority when over a third of the nation’s entire workforce is ruled out from the get-go.

For full disclosure, I absolutely hate WFH arrangements. I’d much rather staff were in the office where I can speak to them in person, rather than via email.

But even a dinosaur like me knows that WFH is here to stay – whether you like it or not.

Eventually Dutton himself came to this same conclusion and backflipped on the idea by April.

It may have eased the concerns of many, but in most respects the damage was already done.

To make matters worse, having Dutton – the political hardman – backtrack and apologise probably inflicted further damage to his campaign and made him look weak and indecisive.

Dutton’s backflip on the WFH idea probably made him look weak and indecisive

Up until February, Labor was slipping in most two-party preferred polls and I thought Albo was cooked.

He spearheaded the disastrous Voice referendum, bore the blame for the immigration debacle which saw asylum seekers with criminal records released into the community and copped flak from all sides for not doing enough to ease the cost-of-living crisis.

Although inflation has now steadied leading to a cash rate cut in February, Albanese and the Labor Party never really had a major policy win they could point to – at home or abroad – to convince voters of their effectiveness to govern.

That should have left the door wide open for the Coalition but rather than hammer Albo on cost-of-living issues, Dutton focused on obscure policies that nobody was asking for.

Nuclear power in Australia, no matter how you feel about its cost or usefulness, is never going to get off the ground. It would require bi-partisan support and there’s zero chance of that.

Even if implementing the technology would bring down the price of electricity – that’s great news for Aussies living in the 2050s. For all us poor sods living in 2025 wincing at our power bills, not so much.

In another blunder, Dutton in March proposed a referendum to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes such as terror-related offenses.

I can see the logic.

I’m not exactly clamoring to live next door to any terrorists either, but after Australia had just gone through an extremely toxic referendum in 2023 which divided the nation on race… it’s a ludicrous idea to put us through a similar ordeal all over again. 

Albo fought a hard campaign, stuck to core issues and looked comfortable going head to head with Dutton in all four debates

It was also an embarrassment to copy Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Australia was told that one of the Coalition’s brightest stars Jacinta Price would head up our version of the shadowy department designed to cut public spending.

Dutton’s January move to align himself with the MAGA movement spectacularly backfired in the following months when Trump slapped a wave of tariffs on our export-driven nation.

But credit where credit is due.

Albo fought a hard campaign, stuck to core issues and looked comfortable going head-to-head with Dutton in all four debates.

It was a disciplined campaign from Labor and unlike the Coalition, there were no slip-ups…. (except for when Albo actually fell off stage).

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