No, as a matter of fact Australians aren't working longer hours.
Over the last few decades the average number of hours worked by employed Australians has actually decreased. Across the 1980s, we were working on average almost 35 hours per week, but over the first decade of the 2000s, the average work week decreased to 33 hours.
Just as hours worked by employed Australians has decreased since the 1980s, the proportion of employed people who were full time has also decreased (84% in 1980 compared with 70% in 2011). In effect, the decrease in proportion of full timers in more recent years has led to a decrease in the average hours worked by all employed people.
If we focus just on those employed full time, the story of hours worked by Australians changes. Average hours worked per week for those employed full time were higher across the 2000s (40 hours) than they were during the 1980s (39 hours), but they were lower than they had been in the 1990s.
