Home Affairs Pushes Mother Out Over Flexible Work

Twenty-four women working in Australia’s public sector told Four Corners they faced pregnancy discrimination at work: demotions, denied flexible work, refused promotions and, in some cases, redundancy or dismissal after pregnancy or parental leave. The institution meant to set a national standard for gender equality is also where these women say they encountered barriers to raising children while keeping their jobs.

Alisha Warner, formerly a counterterrorism senior executive in the Department of Home Affairs, said she eventually left through voluntary redundancy after the department refused her request to return from parental leave on the same flexible arrangement she’d used before. “It's not a real choice when you don't feel like you have any other choices,” she told Four Corners. She declined to sign a confidentiality agreement.

A flexible arrangement, then a refusal

For nine months before taking leave for her second baby, Warner worked full-time hours over four days. When she asked to return on that arrangement, she said, “I was surprised to be met with an immediate response that senior executives cannot work flexibly.” She said she was “really shocked and a bit concerned immediately about what that was going to mean.”

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show Warner’s managers sought Human Resources advice about her request to return on compressed hours. The advice said the department had “reasonable business grounds” to refuse, while acknowledging it was “arguable” her four-day arrangement “remains in place”. In an email seeking a response to Warner, a department official wrote: “Confirming the intention is not to support the request, so I'd be grateful for a response on that basis.”

The department offered a short transition period, then required Warner to work five days a week. She said she couldn’t get another day of child care for her children. “Going back full-time [over five days] is not always an option,” she said. Warner added that she was “very strongly given a message that flexible work was not going to be supported anywhere.”

A Home Affairs spokesman said the role’s scope, complexity and sensitivity had evolved after the Bondi terrorist attack and required sustained senior executive oversight, leadership and decision-making. The department said it therefore couldn’t approve compressed hours. Warner said she had been available on her day off for anything critical under the previous arrangement. She’d heard assertions about the role’s workload, she said, but little “real tangible evidence or information” explaining why it could not continue that way.

The cost passed down

Warner said she didn’t want to leave. “The thought of leaving a full-time, secure, senior executive role that I worked so incredibly hard to get filled me with absolute dread,” she told Four Corners. She said many people are forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, creating “a complete dark hole of people feeling like they're alone in what has happened to them.”

Former assistant commissioner of the Australian Border Force Kylie Rendina said some public-service managers saw flexible arrangements as too costly, but losing a staff member who needed flexibility could cost an agency more. Replacing an experienced staff member could cost 50 to 200 per cent of an annual salary, she said. Rendina called on agencies to change their attitudes to reflect the demands of raising a family: “That's just not reality anymore.”

A Home Affairs spokesman denied a culture of rejecting flexible work because of cost, while acknowledging cost was a factor. He said the department must consider staff expenditure within its budget and under the Public Governance Performance and Accountability Act.

A right that can be costly to claim

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth said the Australian public service, including the federal government, aimed to be a “model employer”. She said taking flexible work shouldn’t suggest someone is less productive or not contributing, and said “there is a right for flexible work.”

Warner took action against the Department of Home Affairs in the Fair Work Commission, alleging a breach of flexible-work provisions. Mediation ended without agreement. She chose not to take her claim to the Federal Court, saying, “I strongly believe in my case, but I also know how much lawyers cost.” Her account sits alongside more than 100 people who told Four Corners they experienced workplace discrimination after becoming pregnant or having children. Warner said the message to women coming up through the public service was that they might need to hold themselves back if they wanted children.