It's a weird thing, the fuel spec chart. Most guys I fly with treat it with contempt and carry what they think is appropriate.
However not all of them do that. Some are clearly quite influenced by being publicly compared to their peers and pressured in numerous ways to carry less fuel.
The interesting thing about this "leak" is that it's the cold hard truth, as opposed to what Qantas fed to the media about the staff travel claim which was flagrantly misleading.