Dutton Wants Public Servants Back In The Office, But Is There Enough Space?
This article was originally published in The Canberra Times on March 7, 2025 with comment from Foundation for Social Health CEO Melanie Wilde.
The Coalition's plan to mandate work-from-office arrangements for federal public servants would have knock-on effects on Canberra's office market, the commercial property sector says.
That sector has been a melting pot of change in recent years: energy policies, the impact of a post-COVID hybrid work model on retail and an increasing number of departments moving to Barton.
But a return to office would bring with it new challenges, like a need for more floor space.
"There will be some interesting impacts on existing leases, particularly groups who have taken new leases assuming there would not be a full head count at work each day," Colliers associate director of office leasing Caleb Brinton said.
Departments like Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Australian Taxation Office, both of which signed new leases for 2025 moves, would need to consider floor space for accommodating all workers.
If the Coalition's plans for full-time office mandates and a cull of 36,000 jobs both get up, there would likely be a neutral impact on Canberra's office market, Mr Brinton said, but conversations with departments were expected to happen pre-election.
"[New offices] have collaboration areas that are more substantial than traditional Commonwealth fit-outs. They have been brought in to make them attractive, modern workplaces comparable to what the private sector has.
"A thought could be that maybe some of those areas get reduced rather than going out and procuring new offices," Mr Brinton said.
"We need to have reasons people actually want to be in the office," she said.
"[Private companies] are designing physical spaces really differently to before to foster connection. A move to hot desking or turning meeting rooms into extra desk space to shove everyone in is not the answer."
She described hot desking and traditional office spaces as a "self-reinforcing loop" that gave people limited reason to go into the office, leading to disillusionment if mandates were brought in.
CBRE's ACT managing director Nic Purdue expected the public service would be forced to consider long-term leasing options in a more rigorous way than under the current government if the Coalition's plan came into force.
"It is really agency-specific as to what their property needs would look like. There are some departments I would expect to need to have conversations about getting more space," he said.
The federal government has for some time worked off a principle of 14 square metres per employee in government offices. Many agencies were operating over that equation, Mr Purdue said, meaning they could afford extra space for staff without eating into collaborative work areas.
"However, there are other entities that probably have capacity in their workplace to accommodate more staff coming in. It is hard to make a comment broadly that there will or won't be demand for office space off the back of [a policy change]," Mr Purdue said.
Some departments would almost double their in-office headcount if the policy came into force. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, for example, had half its staff working permanently from home during the 2023-24 financial year, according to government records.
About a quarter of staff in the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, Digital Transformation Agency, Australian Digital Health Agency, Australian Human Rights Commission and Workplace Gender Equality Agency were in the same position.
Both Mr Brinton and Mr Purdue said any discussion around changes to working conditions was highly speculative.