The right to disconnect: Albo talks new laws with Nova’s Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel

Nova’s Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel landed quite the scoop last night when the PM himself called in to talk about the new ‘right to disconnect’ laws which have just kicked in.

Tim asked Anthony Albanese “What does it mean in a nutshell?”

Albo replied “What it means is that if you’re not being paid 24 hours a day, you shouldn’t be on call 24 hours a day. So you can’t be penalised, to put it really simply. It’s to make people a bit more relaxed in their life.”

“So much of the world now is connected up and there’s positives about that, but people shouldn’t have to look at their phones and answer an email from the boss at ten o’clock at night if they’re in a 9 to 5 job without getting some form of compensation for it, or without that being agreed.”

Ricki-Lee remarked “I feel like because we have smart phones … we are so available all the time. You’re always an email or messenger or a whatsapp or an Instagram DM away from someone contacting you. And I feel like that’s where this comes from, right?”

Albo replied “It does, and it comes from people feeling like they’re under enormous pressure in their life and life’s about a range of things. It’s about work, but it’s also about enjoyment with your family, with your friends, being able to tune out.”