A model ranked her among the “poor fit” candidates and the file closed before a human ever opened it. Somewhere in Melbourne, a woman returning after two years of parental leave is marked down for an “employment gap”. Responsibility scatters into the space between them, and the candidate is left holding a rejection that no one will own. The gap where the candidate fallsHere is the cruelty of it: the law protects, but the person it protects cannot see the harm. It is a first, narrow admission that being judged by a machine is something you deserve to be told about.