After promising to sack tens of thousands of public servants, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has doubled down on his culture war against workers, particularly women, by promising to end work-from-home arrangements.

Dutton argued that “taxpayers are working harder than ever to pay the bills and housing public servants in Canberra refusing to go to work”.

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But data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that 36% of people worked from home last year, down 1% from the previous year.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume claimed on March 3 that “bureaucrats” have been given a “blank cheque to work from home” and are a drain on the public purse.

Hume cited a United States-based Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research paper saying that working from home reduced productivity by about 20%. She said a Coalition government would force all federal public servants to return to the office five days a week, with limited exceptions.

However, the Stanford study found that “many employers like remote........

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