[tomcorrigan]

> It's law in Australia. If you do not serve a notice period you owe the company wages for that period. 1 month wages minus 1 month notice = 0

You have misstated the law. If you sign an employment contract that requires two weeks notice from either party to terminate, then you work a week and quit without working the two week notice period your employer is not required to pay you for the notice period, they absolutely must pay you for the week you did work. Similarly if an employer tells you not to work the notice period they are still obliged to pay you for it.

I understand your confusion as the wording the clauses about withholding pay on notices is somewhat unclear and takes a pretty close reading to understand