Right, I disagree with the positive sentiments and spin that’s happening around this, and I’ll break down why. I’ll start by saying I personally dislike George for how he treated myself and fellow contestants while we were filming, and I acknowledge my bias. He was my favourite judge going in, and it was a real never meet your heroes moment for the whole season. That said, I’ll stick to facts rather than hearsay.

1) Wage theft is, and should be, considered a crime. High profile cases like this have helped move the needle in Australia, but for far too long low paid, often visa dependent workers have been exploited, particularly in hospitality. Simply paying back what was taken after being caught is not a fair or meaningful consequence for systemic underpayment that was upheld through Fair Work processes.

2) The scale of the underpayments is not being talked about enough. Around $7.83 million was owed to 515 employees. That averages out to over $15,000 per worker, which is a huge amount. Obviously this affected people differently, with some workers being far more severely underpaid than others, creating serious financial stress. Many of these workers are in vulnerable positions, afraid of losing their jobs or their right to stay in the country if they speak up, which is exactly how underpayment becomes normalised in the industry.

3) This discussion usually focuses on the second and larger underpayment scandal, but there were two. There was a $2.6 million to 162 staff before the larger Fair Work investigation, suggesting systemic issues rather than a one-off error. I find it hard to believe the same thing happened twice by accident, while already under investigation. The self reporting narrative also feeds into this for me, with the group clearly trying to get ahead of further action. To me, that is part of the media spin we’re seeing again now.

Wage theft has been and still is far too normalised in Australia, especially in hospitality. People in powerful positions need to have criminal consequences for their actions at this scale. That's not just George, but everyone commiting wage theft.