Boss wants me contactable while on annual leave - am I being unreasonable to say no?

Corporate bullshit office job here. Not saving lives, not curing cancer. I work a job with arbitrary deadlines and have a boss who’s borderline micromanagey.

Heading out tomorrow on a 3-week holiday overseas. And not like a “same timezone” destination, I’m talking about 9 hours time difference. My company’s mobile phones don’t have automatic roaming built in so we have to make a request to IT to turn it on.

As I was heading out today, my boss suggested (nay, instructed?) that I put a request through to the team to have roaming turned on. I was honestly so flabbergasted at the request, I didn’t say no - but I certainly didn’t say yes I would. I wrote a super detailed handover (more than most would) because my backfill actually needs to action something. I feel like I’ve done my part. If they can’t figure it out then that’s on them.

I know Australia has a right to disconnect law, but unsure if it applies to me as I’m just above the FW high income threshold (barely).

Since boss has asked me to do it, I’m wondering how screwed I will be if I just don’t. I’m doing a great job at setting boundaries with myself as of recent so I have no intent on switching it on, but can’t help but think this will come back to bite me.

I’ll never understand managers like this. Nothing is so important it can’t wait. That’s always been my attitude even with my direct reports. I expect my DRs to switch off. I just wish the same could be afforded to me.

Rant over. Thanks for listening.