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Speaker 1: Public Service been called back to the office. While some

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Speaker 1: of them have I'll talk to the Prime Minster about this,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many have. I don't even think

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Speaker 1: they've got a plan around this. The government wants strict

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Speaker 1: to working from home rules. We just don't know what

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Speaker 1: they are. A Wellington Chamber of Commerces kind of wittens

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Speaker 1: with us, kind of morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Mind broadly you guys support this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, we do think that this has the real

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Speaker 2: potential to make a difference for Wellington and it's important

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Speaker 2: to recognize that at a time when public finances are

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Speaker 2: pretty tight, it's something that really doesn't cost the government assent.

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Speaker 2: We all know it's been a hard time for businesses

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Speaker 2: in Wellington, but particularly for retail and hospitality. Working from

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Speaker 2: home trends are definitely a very big part of that.

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Speaker 2: And look, you're right the numbers are a little bit

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Speaker 2: hard to quantify. We will have those numbers because public

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Speaker 2: sector CEOs will be required to report on it. But

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Speaker 2: look at some ballpark figures. There are twenty eight thousand

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Speaker 2: public servants who still work in Wellington according to the

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Speaker 2: Public Service Commission. If they're working from home, and average

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Speaker 2: of two days a week that's more than fifty thousand

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Speaker 2: fewer potential customers for businesses in the CBD and in

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Speaker 2: the city size of Wellington. That makes a real impact

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Speaker 2: if we get some of those people back in the city.

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Speaker 2: Not everyone's going to buy a coffee or go shopping

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Speaker 2: or head out for a Friday drink, but tens of

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Speaker 2: thousands more people in the city the size of Wellington.

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Speaker 2: It's going to make a real impact at a time

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Speaker 2: when businesses are doing it tough.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any confidence that there were no rules yesterday?

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Speaker 1: It was just a general, hey, we should really do

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Speaker 1: something about this vibe. Is anything actually going to happen?

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Speaker 1: Do you think, well?

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Speaker 2: I suppose time will tell on that. I mean, of

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Speaker 2: course they can't really just step out and mandate it

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Speaker 2: all together. Some of it may be written into employment

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Speaker 2: contracts already. Any change will have to comply with employment law,

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Speaker 2: and every employee, whether they're in the public or private sector,

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Speaker 2: has the right to try to negotiate for flexible working.

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Speaker 2: There will be many situations where that might be the

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Speaker 2: right thing to do. What we don't want to see

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Speaker 2: is the current situation, whereas for many agencies it's just

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Speaker 2: become the default This change is about making sure there's

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Speaker 2: a good reason for public servants to be working home

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Speaker 2: from home, and we think that's a pretty sensible step.

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Speaker 2: What we would like to see, you're right, is that

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Speaker 2: it actually brings people back into the office. So CEO

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Speaker 2: has been required to report on that level of working

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Speaker 2: from home in their ministries is really important. We'll have

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Speaker 2: that data by the start of next year and that'll

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Speaker 2: be the point to assess whether it's really making an

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Speaker 2: impact or maybe whether there's something else that can be done.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, Candor appreciate it very much, con of Whitten,

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Speaker 1: who's out of the Wellings and Chamber of Comments.

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