The Equal Opportunity Amendment (Work from Home) Bill 2026 has already passed the Legislative Assembly and is now before the Legislative Council. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) had urged Carroll to use the change in leadership as a chance to scrap the bill altogether, rather than simply amend it. COSBOA had flagged that employers could be required to cover expenses like hardware, software and secure system access to enable remote work, costs Cappuccio said don’t hit all businesses equally. COSBOA also pointed out that flexible work requests are already covered under Australia’s national workplace relations framework, questioning whether a separate Victorian entitlement is necessary at all. For small business owners watching this process, the practical questions remain open: what compliance will actually cost, whether cost- and liability-sharing obligations survive in their current form, and whether a size-based exemption makes it into the final version.