Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce warns AI could replace work-from-home jobs, urges caution for remote workers

Australia’s workplace ombudsman will be asked to support the right to work from home, to stop it from being used by employers to bargain away other rights, amid warnings AI could replace jobs that can be done remotely.

The Australian Services Union says it will lodge a submission with the Fair Work Commission to support working from home, where it’s possible to do so.

“Working from home is now a permanent feature of the modern Australian workplace, and our submission will make it clear that the location of work does not diminish its value,” union secretary Emeline Gaske said on Monday.

Workers have embraced the benefits but are concerned about employers using it as an excuse to cut pay and conditions.

“Our submission will demonstrate the productivity benefits of a remote workforce and will argue that we have to provide the protections that those workers are entitled to,” Ms Gaske said.

“Taking away the right to work from home would be a race to the bottom that will hurt hundreds of thousands of workers, the majority of whom are women across our country, and we will fight it every step of the way,” she said.

The union’s submission is backed by a survey of 600 workers, more than two-thirds of them women - 98 per cent of whom consider being able to work from home as “extremely” or “very important”.

But federal Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said workers needed to be careful because jobs that can be done from home could be automated by artificial intelligence tools.

“If your job is a keyboard, yourself and a computer, it’s not a myth, AI is coming,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“I’d be doing everything in your power to try and keep your jobs because if people can prove they don’t need to come to the office then the office can prove that they can be replaced by AI.”

Mr Joyce pointed to trades work, such and electricians and plumbers.

“AI won’t be able to turn itself into a plumber or itself into an electrician or a chippy, so trades are a place where you can sustain a good level of employment,” he added.

“It ... replaces people but it doesn’t have hands and it doesn’t have feet - think about it.”

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said repetitive jobs were most under threat from AI.

“What we need to do is make sure that there are good jobs available for Australians in new and emerging industries as well,” she said.

“We’ve got real capacity to develop some of those AI tools right here.

The rise of working from home emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained part of the workforce.

The use and application of AI is likely to be a hot topic at the federal government’s productivity roundtable beginning in Canberra on Tuesday.