Industrial Relations Act 2016

A person must bear the person’s own costs in relation to a proceeding before the court or commission.

However, the court or commission may, on application by a party to the proceeding, order—

a party to the proceeding to pay costs incurred by another party if the court or commission is satisfied—

the party made the application or responded to the application vexatiously or without reasonable cause; or

it would have been reasonably apparent to the party that the application or response to the application had no reasonable prospect of success; or

a representative of a party (the represented party) to pay costs incurred by another party to the proceeding if the court or commission is satisfied the representative caused the costs to be incurred—

because the representative encouraged the represented party to start, continue or respond to the proceeding and it should have been reasonably apparent to the representative that the person had no reasonable prospect of success in the proceeding; or

because of an unreasonable act or omission of the representative in connection with the conduct or continuation of the proceeding.

The court or commission may order a party to pay another party an amount reasonably payable to a person who is not a lawyer, for representing the other party.