The Guardian 10 August, 2005
Uproar over holiday plans
The tourism industry says moves to cut annual leave are a threat to the $55 billion sector,
while a leading historian warns they will change what it means to be Australian. Tourism
and Transport Forum chief, Christopher Brown, said Kevin Andrews' threat to halve
guaranteed annual leave entitlements could decimate domestic tourism.
Industry leaders expressed their concerns to federal Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, last week. Mr
Brown said Andrews' plan to allow two weeks of annual leave to be cashed out would see workers
taking fewer holidays.
He said it would take Australia one undesirable step closer to the US situation.
At the same time, Sydney University history teacher, Richard White, argued it could split Australian
society between the haves and the have-nots.
Near-universal access to paid family holidays, he said, had been a defining characteristic of
Australian-ness, different from the experiences of other Anglo-Celtic societies.
"One scenario, if we keep on going down this line, is that we'd get to a situation which is a bit like it
was back in the 18th Century", Mr White said. "[Where] you had a sort of class that could afford
leisure and sufficient income — unearned income from investment and inheritance — that class
didn't need to work and they could enjoy quite a lot of leisure.
"On the other hand, the majority of people had less and less leisure available to them."
The Australian reported last week that there was widespread tourism industry support for Mr
Brown's warning about economic damage. It quoted voyages hotels and resorts boss, Grant Hunt,
warning staff would "burn out" because economics would dictate they should take the
money.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council head Daniel Gschwind called the proposal a "bad
move".