Tuesday, 12 August 2025

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:07): Victorians know that working from home works. It works for families. It works for productivity. It is good for the economy, particularly when you consider the data that tells us about the productivity benefits that come from those who can work from home who do work from home. And of course it is good for Victorian families. That is why today, alongside the Treasurer, we have opened public consultation on the work we are doing on the right to work from home. We are undertaking this consultation to listen to Victorians, to workers, to businesses and to families about what they are doing right now and to determine what is already working, what is fair and what is practical as we move to enshrine in law the right to work from home. That is why we are undertaking this task, because flexibility should not just be seen as a perk you have to ask for. Flexibility is central to the way workers and working people and their families should be able to organise their lives. It should be a right that families can count on.

We know this is important for parents, but particularly for women. For many women it can be the difference between being able to go to work at all or not. It can be the difference between them being good, productive members of our economy and community or not. I think these working people and working women deserve a government that is on their side and that will fight for them and protect their right to work from home, because it also means more time back in their day and more money back in their household budgets, which also makes it good for their local small businesses because it means more time and money they can spend in their local community. We know working from home is at risk. We know there are those who oppose it. Only Labor will protect it.