Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I notice that the minister spent most of his time talking about unfair dismissal, not unlawful dismissal. I ask: given that an employer is hardly going to tell a worker that they have been sacked because of their age, their race or their sex, won’t an employee who thinks that they have been sacked unlawfully now have to prove it in court? Is the minister aware that the average cost of undertaking a claim for unlawful dismissal is $30,000? How does the government expect workers, battlers, to afford $30,000 in legal bills on top of losing their job when they have been sacked unlawfully?