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.

It's not sarcastic, I assumed Australia to be similar to Europe on the matter.

Here (at least where I am), the funny thing was that even establishments where you had to show a corona passport, were not legally allowed to ask their employees for vaccination. The justification for this is that you don't have to go to a bar to have a drink, but the employees rely on working their for their livelihood. And I was glad to have less nonsense rather than more.

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...

Not sure this would fly. Even in cases where there is at will employment, like with temporary contracts, if you can demonstrate that your contract was not extended due to something illegal (like requiring vaccination), you could sue for damages and/or reinstatement. At least, that's how it works here.

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.

Yes, that is unfortunately fairly universal. However, employee protections are so well-established in Europe, that they are upheld even when they go against the interests of TPTB.

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...

Incredible. The gall of these people to interfere with such matters. Assuming you're not working with 90-year-old patients with diabetes...