Victorian property group warns enshrining WFH in state law will harm Melbourne’s pandemic recovery

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Victoria's peak property group has warned the city's recovery form the pandemic will be hampered by the Premier's plan to enshrine working from home into state law, with office vacancy rates still sky high. But the state government remains undeterred, even without the detail of how the plan will work.

Transcript

00:00By the end of the year passengers should also be stepping onto trains on the metro tunnel.

00:10Testing next weekend will force Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham travellers to change trains to

00:14get to the city as their routes test the new line.

00:18We're trying to really put the tunnel through its paces.

00:20But with the government wanting more people to work from home and public transport patronage

00:24down since the pandemic, will the new line actually take many passengers?

00:29We don't expect that working from home will change that overall demand, though of course

00:34the way usage patterns and so on will be changing.

00:37The COVID induced working from home revolution has changed the city's economy.

00:42Office vacancy rates remain high at nearly 18 per cent, although it has recovered by the

00:46barest of margins for the first time since the pandemic.

00:50But the Property Council believes further improvement is at risk under the Premier's working from

00:55home plan.

00:56To mandate work from home for two days per week, we think will have a very negative

01:02impact on sentiment to invest into Victoria, and we're concerned about that.

01:08We're here to make sure that working from home, which works for so many families, is protected.

01:14While workplace law is Canberra's responsibility, the PM is unfazed by the Premier's work from

01:22home intervention or complaints from business.

01:25Jacinda Allen, I'm sure, is responding to what the committee have said, which is that flexible

01:31working arrangements help workers and they help employers.

01:35How the government plans to make this work remains a mystery, including who will be considered

01:39to be able to reasonably work at home.

01:42The idea is heavy on politics and sends a clear message about who the Premier values most.

01:47It's also bait for the Liberals, who are yet to take it and follow business into resisting

01:52the plan.

01:53Where are the details?

01:54The Premier needs to explain herself.

01:56Plenty of others are asking the same question.

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