Rob Hortle spent more than 25 years in workplace regulation, most recently as the inaugural Commissioner of what is now the Workforce Inspectorate Victoria. In this first episode of In Practice – our series of longer conversations with practitioners who’ve spent careers doing the work of regulation – Paul Leavoy sits down with Rob to talk about what it actually takes to build a regulator’s capability: the design choices, the culture work, and the enforcement philosophy that has shaped a modern institution.
This is a conversation about the decisions that don’t make headlines but determine everything. It’s the kind of work that, in Rob’s case, eventually earned him a Public Service Medal in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours for his contribution to industrial relations and workplace regulation.
In this episode:
- Why the first decisions in a new regulator – data, systems, and culture – are the hardest to undo, and why getting them wrong early costs far more than it saves
- How a 5% rule operates in practice: the vast majority of matters are resolved without litigation, and what it takes to build the systems and people capable of making those calls well
- Stories that don’t show up in the statistics – including child employment interventions that prevented serious harm – and why Hortle thinks regulators need to tell them anyway
Rob’s conclusion, borrowed from Pippa Norris and Onora O’Neill, is worth hearing in his own words: don’t worry about trust. Just be trustworthy.
The Modern Regulator Podcast co-host Simon Corden will return to chat with Paul and a guest in the next episode on our feed.
Further reading
We previously published a full written feature on Rob’s work building the inspectorate. It covers the enforcement record, the Woolworths prosecution, the pandemic-era culture challenge, and the design choices that have defined the agency’s first five years.
Episode 1 of In Practice, featuring Rob Hortle in conversation with Paul Leavoy. Listen now below or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Also, subscribe to The Modern Regulator newsletter for monthly analysis and practitioner insight.
