Radisich v McDonald

Radisich v McDonald was a legal dispute involving the applicant, Radisich, and two respondents. The applicant sought penalties for contraventions of two federal statutes, the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) and the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth), by the respondents. The Federal Court of Australia was the court that heard the case.

The central legal issues the court had to decide were whether the respondents had indeed contravened the specified sections of the mentioned Acts and, if so, what the appropriate penalties should be. The court had to determine whether the contraventions were deliberate and whether the penalties imposed were commensurate with the severity of the breaches.

The court found that the respondents had indeed contravened the specified sections of the Acts. It held that the contraventions were deliberate and severe, justifying the imposition of penalties. The court ordered that the first respondent pay $1,980 for the contravention of section 790(1) of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) and $4,400 for the contravention of section 38 of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth). The second respondent was ordered to pay $6,600 for the contravention of section 790(1) of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) and $22,000 for the contravention of section 38 of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth). The penalties were to be paid to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue by 5 November 2012. The respondents were also jointly and severally liable to pay the applicant’s costs in the sum of $15,000 by the same date.