Comment by AdamN
2 years ago
That's exactly what it is. Criminal liability is a deterrent model with a very high bar that is usually used when other mechanisms are not scalable. The number of people determined to be criminally liable in a country like Australia for a labor offense is going to be very small and focused on the absolute worst offenders years after the offense.
Okay, then that’s just saying we “let the market forces work out not murdering your own employees”. It dilutes the statement to be meaningless.
Criminal liability is a massive government intervention which is the exact opposite of allowing market forces to decide.
It's not the opposite. The opposite would be banning the activity at multiple levels (like the war on drugs). Criminal liability is a very thin lever from the government - it obviously is hugely material to the person charged but charging would only occur in a small fraction of cases and the final judgement would likely be well below the maximum.
For instance, if I drive 10mph over the speed limit and hit somebody and kill them, I may be criminally liable. However the percentage of people in this set charged (and convicted) in such situations is not high.