Melbourne University associate professor of computing Vanessa Teague said a "simple computer program" could be designed to detect evidence of wage underpayment using the rules laid out in the award system, but that any such project should safeguard workers' privacy by requiring informed consent. Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter did not rule out introducing data matching as part of his wage theft crackdown and said workplace exploitation "will not be tolerated by this government". Mr Porter said the government accepted "in principle" the recommendations of the migrant worker taskforce – which included taking a "whole of government" approach and giving the Fair Work Ombudsman expanded information gathering powers. The taskforce report said inter-governmental information sharing was "an important avenue" for identifying wage under payment and could be used to "support successful prosecutions". In the latest case of alleged wage underpayment in the hospitality industry, the company behind the Crown casino eatery fronted by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, Dinner by Heston, this week applied to be wound up after failing to comply with a statutory notice requiring it to back pay staff for unpaid overtime.

"The amount of underpayment occurring now is so large that there is an effect on wages generally and on making life difficult for law-abiding employers." Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter did not rule out introducing data matching as part of his wage theft crackdown and said workplace exploitation "will not be tolerated by this government". Senator Sheldon said artificial intelligence could be used to detect discrepancies in payment data held by the Australian Taxation Office on employers in industries such as retail, hospitality, agriculture and construction. "You could do it for wages and superannuation, with an algorithm used as a first flag for human intervention," he said. Senator Sheldon said an algorithm could be programmed with the average amount of overtime employees typically worked in each sector, and flag the employer for audit if they were paying little or no overtime.