Well, they charged me when using an annual leave ticket for 2kg over, and when I left the company they tried to charge me a few thousand as I was 5kg over and the staff were extremely rude to boot. Luckily a very nice duty manager helped me to get the bags down and then came back and said I could take it since a lot of people boarded with way less than 30kg, but by that time it was too late to repack so I just left the stuff.
And I was an employee, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. I suppose it can depend on the airport, in my experience outstations have always been much better than Dubai at looking after staff (any staff!)
Have you tried calling one of the local Aussie offices to check?