Home and Away fans may be gearing up for the Christmas break, but the pause comes with a little surprise brewing behind the scenes. The show steps off Aussie screens until January, yet something important has been happening off-camera and it’s about to make a real difference for the people who help shape every storyline in Summer Bay.
A Look Back at What Led to the Change
For years, the writers behind Home and Away worked on fixed-term contracts that wrapped up every December. When production stopped for Christmas, so did their pay and employment status, only to start again in January when the new set of contracts arrived. It became a tough yearly pattern, especially because the break always hit during the holidays. The Australian Writers’ Guild pushed hard to change that. They spent months speaking up for the script department.
AWG’s Director of Industrial and Policy, Bryant Apolonio, shared that the contract gaps created a real lack of security for writers each year. Those conversations grew louder after updates to the Fair Work Act in 2022. The new rules limited how fixed-term contracts could be used, and the writers asked the guild whether those changes applied to their roles. Apolonio explained that the guild believed they did, so they approached the Seven Network to sort out what needed to happen next.
Home and Away: The Big Behind-the-Scenes Changes
Those talks paid off. The Seven Network has now agreed to move the script department from fixed-term contracts to permanent employment. Apolonio said the guild and the network reached an agreement to give the writers year-round stability instead of the old December drop-off. He explained that under the old system, the contracts ended in December and restarted in January, leaving the team unpaid during the Christmas pause.
With the new setup, the writers not only gain permanent roles but also receive added perks, including pay for the public holidays that fell during the 2024 production break. Apolonio also shared that the Fair Work Act changes helped push things forward, as Seven accepted the guild’s view that the writers should not stay on the previous contract model.
Of course, while things shift behind the scenes, the drama on screen is just heating up. Home and Away returns in Australia on 19 January 2026, picking up right where the cliffhanger left fans holding their breath. Stay tuned to Soap Opera Daily for all things Home and Away.