Thursday, 11 December 2025


E&OE

Heidi Murphy: On the line is Tim Wilson, the shadow industrial relations spokesperson, the Liberal member for Goldstein. Tim, thanks for your time this afternoon.

Tim Wilson MP: Thanks Heidi.

Heidi Murphy: What do you make of it?

Tim Wilson MP: Well I just think it's Premier Jacinta Allan has been gaslighting Victorians. She had a plan for a press release around work from home. She's made a lot of bold promises, but what Senate estimates has shown is that she hasn't told the federal government who are actually responsible for this area. They haven't got any plans to deliver it. The federal government hasn't even bothered to check whether it's legal and I think as we're going to an election year we'll hear a lot of hoopla about whether is there any actual plan to deliver it.

Heidi Murphy: Is it because that they're still doing a little bit of work on what form it would take? Do they need to go past the Commonwealth for approval?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I think that'll be the excuse, but they don't need to go past the Commonwealth. They have to engage the Commonwealth no matter which way they deal with it. It's a Commonwealth power, it was referred in the nineties. So the Federal Government would have to be a part of the conversation. But they haven't even gone to them, they haven't even written to them, they haven't spoken to them. And this isn't my view, this is what the federal government has said in Senate estimates. And they've basically called out the state government and said, Jacinta Allan is having us all on and now it's out there in the public domain.

Heidi Murphy: I didn't see those words in Hansard from the hearing. You sure they said that? They inferring that?

Tim Wilson MP: They didn't use those exact words, but that's the extent of what they've done. They were asked by Senator Maria Kovacic whether the state government had been in contact with them and whether they got legal advice, and the answer was no. And you know, considering what the bold promises have been of the state premier and how much hoopla she's tried to use work from home as a weapon, and the federal government's basically turned around and said they haven't been in contact with us, they haven't spoken with us, so we haven't even bothered to get legal advice about it, which shows you how much it's a press release and not a plan.

Heidi Murphy: I was watching some of it back and yeah, just the blank looks on it were quite something. It really was a wait, what? No, no, we've not done any work. What would your expectation be of a level of work done? Appreciating that maybe the state hasn't had to to bring it in yet because it's really not formed much past a speech at a conference and then some consultation along the way. Should the feds be doing some work parallel knowing that it's in the wind, knowing that it's in theory, on the planning process, in train?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I would have thought the state government would have written to the federal government and said, hey, we've got this plan. We're going to need you guys to do something to make it happen. You know, here are the legal instruments we think you're going to need. We might need you to change the law, we might need the Minister to sign off on something. They've talked about using anti discrimination law, which is a very strange way to to deal with these issues, but we'll leave that to one side. But it has essentially done none of that. So the Commonwealth sort of shrugged its shoulders and said, well, we don't know what to do. We don't know how we're going have to look into it, so we're just going to go and focus on other things instead.

Heidi Murphy: Could it be done through the anti discrimination act? Can it be is there something within discrimination law that would allow the state to make its own rules?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, under the Fair Work Act there's a provision around state anti discrimination laws, but that's essentially saying you're going to make work from home the equivalent of a human right. Now we we can debate I'm I used to serve as Australia's human rights commissioner. Human rights are things like freedom of speech, which are which are universal and must apply to everybody. Work from home, you know, we know that teachers, tradees, people who work in retail, people who host radio shows don't get the capacity to exercise it. So in order to fulfil the proposition, you're basically saying we have to engage in human rights abuses. So it's kind of a very bizarre way to deal with the problem or you're diminishing human rights in the process so that the Premier can engage in press release politics.

Heidi Murphy: Do you think that means it can't be done, it can't use that avenue? It can't go down that path?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, this is what Jacintra Allan is going to have to prove to everybody. Because at this point she's got, as you've said, a speech, a press release, but no policy for delivery and we're all waiting to see what she's got. But that's why I say she's gaslighting Victorians, and I just don't think people should fall for it.

Heidi Murphy: Scale of one to ten, how likely is it? Do you reckon it'll make it across the line?

Tim Wilson MP: In terms of a policy at the end of the day?

Heidi Murphy: In terms of a piece of legislation that is supposed to be coming to the parliament early next year and sailing on through.

Tim Wilson MP: Well, if they actually have a piece of legislation, you know, I don't know whether it will will get past. That's up to the Victorian Parliament, but there's clearly a lot of work to be done, because they haven't engaged with the stakeholders they need. Industry doesn't seem to have any idea how it'll work. The federal government has voted against similar proposals in Canberra already. So it says to me that it's not not enjoying the support that they would want it to.

Heidi Murphy: You know plenty about the dark arts of of politics and election campaigning in terms of what they're trying to achieve here. My assumption is they're trying to get a piece of legislation through so that even if it does get taken off to the High Court, that just adds more weight to the argument that Labor is the party for the workers and anybody standing against it is a terrible person. Is that too cynical that it is just a ploy entirely?

Tim Wilson MP: I think it's a fair to say it's a ploy. They're trying to weaponise work from home so that they can go around and say that they're the only ones who are out there protecting it. I mean, I support work from home. Work from home works when you've got employers and employees working together in the best interests of growing businesses and growing economic opportunity for workers and and and employers. That's why this is press release politics. So yes, it's a cynical ploy in terms of their approach. It's where it started from. You know, the open boasting in newspaper articles when it was announced that they did some polling to see whether it would test and work. They said yes it did. And so they went and announced it and now they're trying to figure out well, how are we going to make this work in law and practice? Because they only worked out the optics and the media.

Heidi Murphy: Yeah, the polling questions were yes, very one sided. Asked to get a response.

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I mean that's the approach of this state government, not just on this issue, but many things. But that's what happens when you have a dying government that has no real answers. While we've actually got really serious problems in this state, crippling debt, massive crime problems. We need to meet serious challenges around our energy crisis, so that we can build the future and give, you know, young Australians hope and opportunity about how we're going build a future that they want to be a part of.

Heidi Murphy: Would a federal government ever have a go at working from home law as a mandate do you reckon?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I don't know whether that's certainly not part of the conversation federally at the moment. There are provisions already under existing Fair Work Act to enable people to have work from home arrangements. So the question is are they deficient or do we need something in addition to that? Because they already exist under the Fair Work Act.

Heidi Murphy: So that's not under active consideration. Something else that's not under active consideration on another topic is any review by the sounds of it of parliamentary expenses. Should there be, do you reckon?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, these things are are constantly reviewed. We have an independent review tribunal that looks specifically at and it's been put away from politicians because when you know in the past when politicians have been viewed to be responsible for them they've been too generous, so they've been sent away from politicians. There's an independent body that looks at these regularly to say, is it meeting one community standards, is it what's necessary to do the job? And so I've no doubt when they come up for the next round of review, they're going to look at the current set of circumstances. But to be frank, it's just about people exercising basic judgement. You know, you do your job, you should be prudent with public money, you should do it well based on what you've got to do to fulfil your public responsibilities, and that's you know the approach I've always tried to take.

Heidi Murphy: Right, Tim Wilson, thank you for your time.

ENDS