‘Transurban Tim’ Pallas divests shares

The Victorian Treasurer has sold his Transurban shares, maintaining he never had a conflict of interest.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas. Picture: AAP

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has divested himself of shares in a transport infrastructure company which stands to make tens of billions of dollars out of a contract with the Andrews government, but still insists his ownership of the shares was never a conflict of interest.

In March The Australian revealed Mr Pallas held shares in a “Blue Chip 20 Long Term Equity­ — Series 3” account with Westpac, made up of shares in the top 20 ASX companies.

The ASX top 20 includes toll road company Transurban, which stands to make $37.3bn in extra tolls from Victorian motorists in exchange for investing just $4bn in the Andrews government’s West Gate Tunnel.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien used Question Time today to ask Mr Pallas why he had sold the shares, after his divestment was revealed with the tabling of the latest register of members’ interests overnight.

“Let me once again restate that of course I’ve complied with all the requirements in terms of reporting, and I continue to do (so),” Mr Pallas said.

“So why is it that I have divested my shares? I can tell you why. Because if you’re a Victorian and you want to help the Victorian economy, now’s the time to get into the property market.

“Now’s the time, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Mr Pallas’s enthusiasm for investing in the property market comes after he was forced to acknowledge a $5.2bn writedown in stamp duty revenue in Monday’s state budget.

It also comes at a time when ASX20 shares are the highest they have been since April 2015, and Transurban shares are at an all time high, having risen from $3.99 in 2009, to $13.95 today.

The Transurban share price has increased by a whopping 30 per cent since last October alone.

Mr O’Brien suggested the Coalition’s victory at the recent federal election had also made it a good time to invest in property.

“Now that negative gearing and capital gains tax is here to stay, I can understand,” Mr O’Brien said.

Another Coalition MP interjected: “You wouldn’t have done that if (Bill) Shorten had been elected!”

Asked by Mr O’Brien whether he had sold his shares before or after his “conflict of interest” was raised in parliament in March, Mr Pallas said: “There was no conflict of interest, so the answer is meaningless.”

The Australian is not suggesting Mr Pallas has acted inapprop­riately in owning the shares.

Mr Pallas will be required to update the register of members’ interests if and when he purchases a property.

When his ownership of the shares was revealed in March, he said he had only realised his portfolio included Transurban shares when contacted by The Australian.

At the time he said he would be keeping the share portfolio, held since “about 2011”, rejecting the need to divest or move the shares to a blind trust.

“I think it’s the best way to manage it,” Mr Pallas said at the time.

Premier Daniel Andrews said in March that Mr Pallas had complied with all relevant laws and guidelines.

“And that really is the end of it,” he said.

Mr Pallas was not required to reveal the size of his now-divested share portfolio, only to amend his register of members’ interests to acknowledged that he had received income worth more than $500 from the sale.

In March he said he did not know how many shares he had, but estimated the number would be “in the thousands” and not the tens of thousands.