Victorian Liberals divided over chief of staff pick as watchdogs weigh probe

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has appointed his best man and childhood friend Nick McGowan as his new chief of staff, as Victoria’s integrity agencies work to determine how best to probe a donations scandal that led to the resignation of his top staffer last week.

Victoria’s Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately told The Age that while he was still determining how to handle the matter, one option was for the commission to issue Guy or his former chief of staff, Mitch Catlin, with legally enforceable notices to produce evidence.

McGowan will only serve in the role for three months before standing down to run for an upper house seat in the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region at the upcoming state election.

Election rules prevent a person who holds an office of the Crown from running for parliament and McGowan will be forced to leave the post when nominations for state election candidates close on November 10.

Guy, who was a vocal critic of Labor’s red shirt scandal – in which parliamentary staff misused taxpayer funds by campaigning in marginal seats during work hours – confirmed that McGowan would not campaign for his upper house election during his “ordinary work hours”.

The arrangement has frustrated some Liberal MPs and members, who described the appointment as “messy” and “bizarre” given McGowan’s dual role as both a candidate and chief of staff.

“The person we have put forward can’t campaign for us,” one Liberal MP told The Age, speaking on the condition on anonymity to discuss party matters.

Another former Liberal staffer who worked alongside McGowan in the Baillieu government described the situation as a “f---ing mess”.

However, McGowan also has supporters, with one former Liberal staffer describing the chief of staff appointment as a “solid choice”.

“He understands the intersection between on-the-ground campaigns and campaign headquarters. He’s very loyal and incredibly hardworking, which makes him very unique in the Victorian Liberal Party,” the former senior Liberal staffer said.

By accepting the chief of staff role, McGowan has also been forced to quit a lucrative job on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He was appointed to the body, which pays between $200,000 and nearly $500,000 a year, in July 2015.

Catlin was forced to resign as chief of staff last week after The Age revealed he asked billionaire Liberal donor Jonathan Munz to pay more than $100,000 to his private marketing business, in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.

The contract, which was never executed, would have required the donor to pay $8333 a month to Catlin’s company, Catchy Media Marketing and Management, for contracting services described as “supporting business interests”.

Gately on Monday confirmed he was working with Victoria Police, the Ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to determine which body would examine the matter, if deemed necessary.

Gately said it was early days in the commission’s preliminary assessment, in which Guy or Catlin could be issued with compliance notices to hand over evidence or give verbal evidence.

Gately said he had “grabbed hold of the matter” before it was referred to the agencies by the government.

“The authority granted to me is quite clear: where a matter relates to donation disclosure, I will have a look at it,” he said.

“I’ll move as quickly as I need to ... but I can’t leave matters like this open too long.”

“The electoral system is built on trust … these matters are important, and it’s about protecting the strength of our democracy.”

Failure to comply with an electoral commission notice is an offence punishable by up to $37,000 in fines.

The opposition leader on Monday said he had not been contacted by any agency.

He told reporters he would no longer answer questions about the episode, which some Liberal MPs believe has compromised his attacks on the government’s integrity record.

“I’m not answering that. That’s last week,” he said. “I’m not going to cop any more of this hypothetical.”

Pointing to the Coalition’s pledge to increase funding to watchdog agencies as a point of difference with Labor, Guy said the press should “go and have those conversations with [Victorian Premier] Daniel Andrews when it comes to integrity.”

Guy declined to answer a question about whether Catlin had flown overseas. The former marketing executive was seen by journalists leaving his Armadale home with a suitcase in hand.

Labor claims Catlin’s proposed scheme was designed to subvert the state’s donation laws, passed in 2019, that limit donations to $4320 over four years.

Gately said the new donations framework, which will be tested at an election for the first time in November, was strict and had caused some confusion.

“The scheme is in its infancy, some of the participants are finding their way through that scheme as well,” he said.

McGowan, who was the best man at Guy’s wedding, has twice attempted to be elected to parliament and was recently preselected to stand for the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region, beating former federal MP Gladys Liu for the winnable second spot.

The incoming staffer has also worked for former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu in opposition and as press secretary to Guy when he was planning minister. Guy and McGowan first met as teenagers when they joined the same Liberal branch.

On the day of Catlin’s resignation, Guy told reporters he would have a new chief of staff by the end of the day.

Several Liberal sources told The Age that other candidates considered for the position, including Liberal staffer Brad Stansfield and long-standing Liberal campaigner Simon Frost, ruled themselves out of contention.

Opposition staff are employed under the Public Administration Act 2004, but there is no legislated code of conduct covering their employment. Guy said McGowan’s first task would be to develop a code of conduct for opposition staff in Victoria.

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