In response to declining voter support, Australia’s main opposition party has abandoned election pledges to end remote working arrangements for public servants and fire tens of thousands of government employees.
The center-right Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton, acknowledged on Monday that the proposals were “mistakes.”
In an interview with Channel Nine, Dutton said, “I think it’s important that we say and acknowledge it, and our intention was to make sure that where taxpayers are working hard and their money is being spent paying wages, it’s being spent efficiently.”
Former Queensland police officer Dutton had promised to eliminate 41, 000 positions from the public payroll and forbid government employees from working from the office five days a week.
Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, doubted his opponent’s all-out demeanor last month when he called a May 3 national election.
According to Albanese, “Peter Dutton wants to undermine work rights and, in particular, doesn’t understand contemporary families, doesn’t understand the crucial role that women and men play in family life,” he told reporters.
In recent polling, Albanese’s center-left Labor Party outperforms Dutton’s Liberal Party-led coalition, despite the close race.
Labor led the Coalition 52-48 in a head-to-head matchup in the most recent Newspoll survey, up one point from the previous poll.
The election campaign has been dominated by cost-of-living issues, including a severe housing affordability crisis.
Although the majority of the vote will likely go to Labor or the Coalition, polls have indicated that there is a high chance of a hung parliament.
