Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is giving his post-Cabinet press conference at 4pm, joined by Finance and Public Service Minister Nicola Willis.

Willis has announced a move to require public service workers to work from the office, rather than from home.

Willis said the Government was publishing new guidance for the public sector workforce, which “will make clear that working from home is not an entitlement and must be agreed and monitored”.

Alongside the guidance, Willis has asked the commission to collect data on working-from-home arrangements. She said this data would be published “early next year”.

She said that while “carefully defined working from home arrangements can benefit workers and employers, if the pendulum swings too far in favour of working from home, there are downsides for employers and employees”.

“That’s even before we consider the effects for the CBD retailers, restaurants and cafes."

Willis has asked the Public Service Commissioner to communicate the directive to public service chief executives and to issue revised guidance about working from home arrangements.

The guidance has three legs:

• working from home arrangements are not an entitlement and should be by agreement between the employee and the employer;
• working from home arrangements should only be agreed to where they will not compromise the performance of employees and agency objectives, and;
• agencies must actively monitor the prevalence and impact of working-from-home agreements, and be able to regularly report to the Public Service Commission about the number and nature of the agreements they have in place.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Luxon will also take questions on the issues of the day, including the revelation published by Newstalk ZB that sticking to the previous Government’s child poverty targets was likely to cost $3 billion a year.

Earlier this year, the Government amended those child poverty targets after receiving advice saying they could no longer be achieved.

An April, a ministerial briefing from Treasury revealed the Labour Government’s poverty targets were “no longer realistically achievable”. In 2018, then-Child Poverty Reduction Minister (now Dame) Jacinda Ardern set a long-term goal of reducing the number of children experiencing “material hardship” from 13.3% down to 6% by mid-2028.

That’s a reduction of about 80,000 children between 2018 and 2028.

Ardern also set an intermediate target of 9% by June this year.

The latest data indicate that target will be missed significantly; Statistics New Zealand figures show 12.5% of children – some 143,700 kids – are experiencing material hardship.

Advice to the minister said the “estimated costs of now meeting these targets would require investment in the region of $3 billion per year”.

Luxon could also be questioned on pressures in the health system.

Over the weekend, Health Minister Shane Reti revealed he had sought advice to address nitrous oxide use after reports of its rising popularity among young people in New Zealand.

“Smokefree enforcement officers have even reported seeing nitrous oxide products – nangs – for sale in vape stores. This is extremely concerning,” Reti said in a statement.

Reti said he had received advice from the Ministry of Health last week about a change of approach that would clarify the law for suppliers and users of nitrous oxide. This would enable police to prosecute the sale and use of the substance for recreational use, he said.

“Nitrous oxide has several legitimate uses, but we also know it is increasingly being used as a recreational drug,” said Reti in a statement.

The Government has a fairly busy legislative week this week, with the first reading of the Parliament Bill set down this week. The Parliament Bill will give Parliament greater control over its own finances.