Could Canberra infrastructure withstand an APS return to office mandate?

Transcript

00:00You've probably seen a lot of coverage lately of a return to office full-time mandate for

00:05public servants if the coalition gets in at this upcoming federal election.

00:10And there's a real question here in Canberra to ask about whether our infrastructure would

00:13be able to sustain an influx of workers back into the office full-time.

00:19Now it's important to note that the coalition would cull public servant jobs if they got

00:23in, but even so we're likely to see more people on our roads and in our CBDs and around

00:28Barton if we're back in the offices full-time.

00:31Now commercial leasing managers have told me this could become a particular issue for

00:35upcoming leases that are rolling over or departments that are moving to new buildings in 2025

00:41because they haven't necessarily accounted for enough offices for all of their workers.

00:45We put this to our readers in the comment section of a recent article and there was

00:49a lot of comments there on the fact that people would feel as if they were being strong-armed

00:54back into the office.

00:56The commutes on Canberra roads are already pretty hefty each day.

00:59We saw from another article recently that people are spending up to 40 minutes travelling

01:03from places around 20km from the CBD.

01:06And of course there's the question around whether offices would still have the space

01:09for core communal areas and places for people to feel like they belong and interact if we

01:14need to add more desks to buildings.

01:17Other readers said in the comments that they felt as if they were just as productive at

01:21home and spending 10 minutes to hang out your washing really isn't such a big deal when

01:25you're likely going for walks with co-workers for that amount of time or getting coffee

01:28taking a lunch break when you're in the office.

01:31And social health experts are pretty worried about what forcing people back into the office

01:35with relatively limited wellbeing incentives would do to people.

01:39Of course Dutton has suggested that women who are concerned about childcare could find

01:44job sharing arrangements if they're back in the office full time but there hasn't really

01:48been a long-term commitment to wellbeing put forward by the coalition here.

01:52Currently Canberra infrastructure really could have a big test to withstand here and it's

01:56something that we're going to keep covering at the Canberra Times before the upcoming

02:00election.

02:01Do you have questions about it?

02:02Drop them below and we will try to answer them.