What changed, and when it starts.

• In force
• All employers
• Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 4AA

Up from $330. Every Fair Work contravention is calculated in penalty units, so this raises the cost of underpayments, record-keeping failures and sham contracting findings at the same time. It does not change what the obligations are — only what breaching them costs.

• In force
• All employers
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)

Up from $183,100. The threshold decides who can bring an unfair dismissal claim without award or enterprise agreement coverage, and caps a guarantee of annual earnings. It is also the line the proposed non-compete ban is pegged to. Award coverage itself is unchanged.

• In force
• Award and minimum-wage staff
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)

$26.44 an hour, and modern award rates move on the same date. An annualised salary or set-off clause written against last year’s rates can stop covering the entitlement it was built to absorb, without a word of the contract changing. Nothing in the contract signals that it has happened.

• In force
• All employers
• Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth)

The cap on the earnings an employer has to pay superannuation guarantee on, set at $270,830 a year. It bites on total-remuneration and superannuation-inclusive packages, where the salary figure is worked backwards from the cap. The 12% rate is unchanged.

• In force
• All employers
• Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth)

1 July 2025 was the last step in the legislated schedule, and the rate stays at 12%. A contract drafted around a rising rate — the package absorbs future increases — no longer has an increase to absorb. The maximum contribution base still moves each year.

• In force
• Businesses issuing standard form contracts
• Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)

For a body corporate the maximum is now the greater of $100 million, three times the value of the benefit obtained, or 30% of adjusted turnover during the breach period — doubled from $50 million. It reaches unfair contract terms contraventions, which is where a standard form supplier or services agreement sits. What makes a term unfair has not changed.

• In force
• Small business standard form contracts
• Australian Consumer Law ss 23–28A

Proposing, using or relying on an unfair term is a contravention in its own right, not simply a term that is void. The same prohibition can be contravened more than once inside one contract, and again for every counterparty a template is sent to. The fairness test itself is unchanged; what changed is the consequence of failing it.

• In force
• Anyone engaging contractors
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 15AA

Employee or contractor is assessed on the “real substance, practical reality and true nature” of the relationship, reversing the contract-first approach two 2022 High Court decisions had set. The written agreement still counts, and so does what actually happens. It does not decide superannuation — that runs on a separate test in a different Act.

• In force
• All employers
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 327A

Deliberately underpaying wages or entitlements is now a criminal offence, sitting alongside the civil penalties that already applied. Honest mistakes are not caught, and a small business that follows the Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code is not referred for prosecution. What the entitlement is has not changed — only what happens when it is withheld on purpose.

• In force
• Employers with fewer than 15 staff
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 333M

Employees of small business employers can now refuse unreasonable contact outside working hours; every other employer has been covered since 26 August 2024. The terms this reaches are the ones requiring availability out of hours, and on-call clauses with nothing attached to them. It does not stop an employer making contact.

• In force
• Employers of casuals
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 15A

A casual is defined by the absence of a firm advance commitment to ongoing work, assessed on the real substance of the relationship rather than the label in the contract. Employee choice notification replaced casual conversion, reaching small business employers from 26 August 2025. A contract calling someone a casual does not settle the question.

• In force
• Employers using fixed-term contracts
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 333E

A fixed-term contract cannot run longer than two years including renewals, and cannot be renewed more than once. A Fixed Term Contract Information Statement has to be given before signing. Exceptions apply, and where the limit is breached the contract still stands — the end date is what falls away.

• In force
• Retail leases, SA
• Retail and Commercial Leases Act 1995 (SA)

A retail shop lease with rent above $420,000 a year now sits outside the South Australian Act, so the disclosure statement, the minimum five-year term and the outgoings rules do not reach it. No other state or territory has an equivalent threshold. The same lease drafted for a Sydney or Melbourne shop is read under a different regime entirely.

• Never commenced
• Retail leases, Tas
• Retail Leases Act 2022 (Tas)

The Act received Royal Assent on 14 December 2022 and has never been proclaimed to commence. Tasmanian retail leases still run on the 1998 Regulations, so the disclosure obligations and protections in the 2022 Act do not apply to any lease. Legal databases index it because it was passed, which is how a tool reading the register rather than the proclamation ends up citing a law that governs nothing.

• Announced, not law
• Employers using restraints
• 2025–26 Budget measure

A ban on non-compete clauses for workers earning below the high income threshold was announced in the 2025–26 Budget. Treasury consultation closed on 5 September 2025 and no Bill has been introduced. Until legislation passes, a restraint is enforceable on the ordinary reasonableness test — dropping one now gives up protection you still have.