𝕎𝕙𝕪 ℕ𝕚𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕒 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕪 𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕜𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖

ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕚𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕝 𝕋𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣. 𝕊𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕒𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕖, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕒 𝔹𝕒𝕪. 𝕊𝕖𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕔𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕘𝕪𝕖𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞. 𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕃𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕟 𝕓𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝟘𝟚. 𝕎𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕠𝕟? 𝕎𝕖𝕝𝕝, 𝕎𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕠𝕟 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕞𝕠𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕟 𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪.

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n a bid to restore the capital’s Mojo, Finance and Public Service Minister Nicola Willis is forcing government departments to call their staff back to the office.

There will be stricter rules around working from home, which the Government believes is having a negative impact on workplace culture.

“There are downsides for employers and employees. That's even before we consider the effects for the CBD retailers, restaurants and cafes,” Willis said.

The news was immediately celebrated by the hospitality industry. Business leaders were emboldened, with Auckland’s Heart of the City group bemoaning the 30,000 fewer people travelling into the CBD every day.

Central city businesses are hoping the private sector is emboldened by the ministerial diktat and follow suit.

Ideologically speaking, this is an incoherent position for National.

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It is supposed to stand for free-market economic policies and freedom of choice.

This was the party that pioneered the ultra-fast broadband (UFB) roll-out, so far the biggest infrastructure development of the 21st century.

Where once we were told to cut back on smashed avo to save for a deposit, now we must consume flat whites so the Lambton Quay cafe owner can afford to pay his mortgage.https://t.co/p7kdWH4Whd

— 🄴🄻🄱🄾🅆 (@Aotearoa_Elbow) September 29, 2024

That gave the economy a competitive advantage and along with other technological innovations made teleworking easier and more widespread.

That structural change was hastened by the Covid 19 pandemic, when WFH (working from home) was crucial to the economy.

"To coin a National Party slogan, the economy rebuilt itself. Willis shouldn’t be trying to drag it back to the 20th century."

Remote work allowed us to relocate away from offices. That squeezed consumer spending out from downtown urban areas and pushed it into the ‘burbs.

Inner cities around the world have felt the impact of depleted in-office work-forces, decreased foot traffic, and a sharp rise in the cost of living.

Wellington’s woes were exacerbated by the slashing of 6000 public service jobs, and a city council that is hell-bent on driving people away.

Hospitality is also suffering because people have less disposal income and our social lives are changing, with Millennials choosing the gym over boozing.

On the other hand, the shift began to undo damage wrought on small towns, suburbs and rural communities by the dramatic market restructuring and de-regulation of the 1980s, which relocated jobs to main centres and closed provincial-based companies.

Finance Minister Willis has no idea what affect their policies will have. file: Johnny HD

Independent businesses and town centres began to hum again, at least until the recession bit.

The genie is out of the bottle: this digital industrial revolution can’t be reversed by a Luddite Luxon and Willis.

And Wellington’s vibrancy won’t be restored with the sales of a few extra cheese scones and long blacks.

Where once we were told to cut back on smashed avo to save for a deposit, now we must consume flat whites so the Lambton Quay cafe owner can afford to pay his mortgage.

But it isn’t the job of workers to save a flagging central city economy, prop up cafes and commercial landlords and the childcare industry at the expense of their health and wealth.

For many people, WFH is healthier, cheaper and restores a work-life balance.

Spending precious hours (and wages) on the grinding daily commute is stressful, unproductive and contributes to congestion and higher emissions.

Clawing back that time with flexible arrangements is especially beneficial for women, who often bear the burden of childcare and domestic work.

And employers might not like it, but the burden of training up a workforce shouldn’t fall to unremunerated colleagues. It’s long past time businesses starting investing in proper training for the next-generation workforce, instead of replying on upskilling by (unpaid) osmosis.

For many of us, the connection between where we live and work has been broken. Where once oil and mineral discoveries led to boomtowns; we now have Zoomtowns.

The internet is now our CBD. We would see more benefit from transforming soulless, empty office blocks into housing. (As well as cut the commercial rent bill as part of the public service cost drive.)

National’s bemoaning working from home is inconsistent with its drive to boost urban sprawl and build new roads into main centres.

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A centre-right government shouldn’t be interfering with supply and demand, nor dictating from where people do their jobs. (What next? Banning packed lunches on the Terrace?)

National should be championing flexible working as an answer to the migration brain drain.

There are people from Waihi to Queenstown who work in international finance and professional services toiling by night and mountain biking or spending time with their kids during the day. It keeps those jobs in New Zealand rather than forcing people to travel for them.

Not only is this a good example of the efficient markets that centre-right governments claim to revere, boosting productivity and increasing the pool of workers available to companies, it also appeals to a key voter demographic: those in white-collar jobs with the resources to work comfortably from home.

To coin a National Party slogan, the economy rebuilt itself. Willis shouldn’t be trying to drag it back to the 20th century.

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