Wait, what? Mandates in Australia? Don't you guys have employee protection/privacy laws preventing that sort of thing?

Assuming this is not sarcastic... Australians will love to tell you that we have "strong employee protection laws" and no "at will employment" here, but... From extensive experience, it really isn't that simple.

I, unfortunately, have only ever been employed either on a contract, or casually. Thus, while my hourly rate is technically higher than the full-time equivalent, you lack any of these protections. So it's incredibly easy to sack me with very little recourse on my part. I knew that even before Covid, and Covid only made that even clearer...

But I also know more "permanent" employees in my "industry" of the time (the Australian Public Service), who were also let go, when mandates came in.

You'll find that "employee protection" and "privacy" laws only apply, in Australia, when it's convenient for TPTB. In this case, everyone with power was on the side of "enforcing mandates", so therefore those laws were largely made moot. The courts wouldn't support workers. The Human Rights Commission ignored it. Etc.

It really just shows you how weak those laws are, in a place like this, in reality.

So yeah, I'm afraid that's just not how it panned out. Many big businesses do still in fact have those mandates, even after they have been officially dropped. Pretty sure I lied on my last job application about it, even, so that will be interesting, if it comes up at interview...