Victorian business authority oversight juggled

For the second time in 10 months, the Victorian government has quietly shifted responsibility for a government board to enable Danny Pearson and his wife to avoid a conflict of interest.

Victorian Labor MP Danny Pearson and wife Nicole Marshall. Picture: Facebook

The Victorian government has quietly shifted ministerial responsibility for a government agency for the second time in 10 months, highlighting the machinery of government changes that have been necessary to enable senior minister Danny Pearson to avoid a conflict of interest with his wife’s board roles.

In December, the government moved Victoria’s Business Licensing Authority out of the consumer affairs portfolio, where it had been since its establishment by the Kennett government in 1998, handing oversight of the agency to Small Business Minister Natalie Suleyman.

The move was intended to avoid any perception of conflict of interest between Mr Pearson as then consumer affairs minister, and his wife Nicole Marshall, who is paid an annual salary of between $18,992 and $53,254 to chair the Business Licensing Authority board.

But less than a year later, the Allan government has shifted ­responsibility for the Business Licensing Authority back to consumer affairs, after Mr Pearson relinquished the portfolio in order to take up a promotion to become Transport Infrastructure Minister.

The move comes after Mr Pearson was forced to place his significant share portfolio in a blind trust earlier this year, after The Australian revealed he had shares in companies including Telstra and Commonwealth Bank, with which he signed contracts on behalf of the government as Assistant Treasurer.

The Business Licensing Authority administers areas of the law directly relating to the consumer affairs portfolio, including the Estate Agents, Motor Car Traders, Owners Corporation, Sex Work, Second-Hand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Acts. Ms Marshall was also the deputy chair of the Motor Car Traders Claims Committee, but resigned from that role when Mr Pearson was sworn in as ­consumer affairs minister on December 5.

Danny Pearson being sworn in as Victorian Assistant Treasurer by Governor Margaret Gardner on October 2. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

The committee continued to be overseen by the consumer affairs minister during Mr Pearson’s time as the minister.

Curiously, Mr Pearson maintains that Ms Marshall was never paid for her role as deputy chair of the Motor Car Traders Claims Committee, which she held between December 2019 and December 2022.

This is despite the current chair and five board members all currently being paid at rates of $18,922 to $53,254 for the chair, and $11,353 to $21,323 for the board members.

Ms Marshall’s positions on the boards were disclosed in Mr Pearson’s parliamentary register of interests.

In response to questions about whether shifting the Business Licensing Authority between portfolios twice in 10 months had incurred any administrative costs, or whether shifting it back to the consumer affairs portfolio constituted a concession that it should always have remained there, an Allan government spokesman said: “The minister has acted appropriately at all times. Responsibility for the Business Licensing Authority was transferred to the minister for small business when (Mr) Pearson became minister for consumer affairs, as was appropriate.”