Book debunks image of Aussies

Forget the image of the laid-back Aussie lifestyle, Australians now work more hours than Americans or Japanese and rank as the hardest-working people in the developed world, according to a new book.

The reputation of heavy drinking Australians is also debunked by figures showing alcohol consumption has dropped dramatically since 1980 and the country now guzzles below average amounts of wine and beer.

"Australians are now the hardest workers in the developed world. Hard to believe, but true," Ross Gittins, co-author of the book How Australia Compares, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper yesterday.

Australia was measured up by the authors against 18 developed countries including the US, Japan, Britain, Ireland, Canada and 11 European countries.

Australians now spend on average 1,855 hours in the workplace every year, just topping Americans who work on average 1,835 hours a year and beating Japanese workers' 1,821 hours.

Gittins said the "doubtful honour" of being the hardest working developed nation was partly because of the fact working hours have dropped substantially in most of the countries compared in the survey, but only slipped marginally in Australia, which also has a high percentage of part-time workers.

Laying to rest the popular image of the beer-swilling macho Aussie bloke, the book said Australians consume more "alco-pops" -- sweet, fizzy bottled drinks that contain alcohol -- than any other country in the survey. But they only rank as the seventh-biggest beer drinkers and eighth-biggest wine quaffers.

Compiling a list of facts and figures, the book notes Australia has notched up one of the strongest levels of economic growth, but donates the fourth-lowest level of official foreign aid per person at US$54 a year, and has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita.

"So, how does Australia compare? The bad news is that, in various respects, we're not the hotshots we imagine ourselves to be. The good news, however, is that in other respects we're not as hopeless as we sometimes assume," the newspaper said.