Thanks. I tried to avoid getting too specific since I knew Australian law would be different, i.e. in the US the normal form of protection would be an LLC or an S-corp (tax pass through closely held entity) and a consulting firm in the US would very rarely be a C-corp (taxable income at both corporate and individual levels).

What employment means is also different. A person consulting to a consulting company that consults to a bank would have no employment relationship with either the bank or its direct consultant. The person might have an employment relationship with their own company that was contracted to the bank's direct consultant.

All of which ought to be governed by contracts...which I failed to mention, but I'd not be surprised it they were in play here.