04:05 Issue 21

The evolving role of payroll in Australia’s compliance landscape

In this white paper, developed by the GPA in partnership with Yellow Canary, we examine how payroll compliance in Australia has shifted from an operational concern to a core governance issue in the wake of wage theft reforms. Drawing on insights from Yellow Canary’s 2026 State of Payroll Compliance Report, we look at why organisations are increasingly expected to provide defensible evidence that employees are being paid correctly. We outline practical approaches to strengthening payroll governance, including proactive audits, clearer ownership of upstream decisions, and the role of human oversight in validating systems and assumptions to support consistent, evidence-based compliance.