The chief of staff to Victoria’s opposition leader, Matthew Guy, has resigned following a report he asked a Liberal party donor to make more than $100,000 in payments to his marketing business.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament on Tuesday morning, Guy confirmed his chief of staff, Mitch Catlin, offered his resignation after the Age revealed on Tuesday he had forwarded a proposed contract that required a donor to pay $8,333 a month to his company, Catchy Media Marketing and Management, for services described as “supporting business interests”.
Guy said he accepted Catlin’s resignation but maintained the contract was “never signed”.
“We’re talking about a contract proposal that was never actioned, never formalised. Nothing similar exists … This is not something that happened and stopped – it never progressed. It was considered and never progressed,” he said.
“Mitch has offered his resignation, and I’ve accepted it, even though nothing was signed and nothing was agreed to.”
According to the Age, Catlin hired lawyers to draw up a contract for the arrangement then sent it to Guy’s personal email address, asking him to forward to the donor, who was not named.
The proposed contract reportedly contained a clause saying it would be terminated if Catlin left the role of chief of staff to the opposition leader.
It was drafted at the time Guy returned to the role after toppling Michael O’Brien in a leadership coup.
If the reported arrangement had gone ahead, Catlin’s private business would have begun invoicing the donor from 7 September 2021 – the day of the leadership coup – until the end of this year, totalling more than $140,000.
Guy denied knowing about the proposal at the time.
“Mitch had some personal discussions with a couple of people and beyond that, there was a leadership change … as you can imagine, that was my primary focus,” he said.
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He also denied the contract was an attempt to circumvent that state’s strict donation laws, which require donations above $1,050 to be disclosed and limited to $4,210 over four years.
Instead, Guy suggested it was under consideration as part of Catlin’s employment but “not considered transparent enough”.
“We believe it’s best to have all staff paid out of the opposition budget, every cent, with nothing beyond that, which is where we are today,” he said.
Guy noted the lack of a legislated code of conduct for parliamentary advisers in the opposition was an “issue that needs resolution”.
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“I will fix that and we will make sure there is a code of conduct for opposition staff,” he said.
“I make it very, very clear that I value integrity in government and also in opposition.”
Integrity in government is set to be a central issue at the November state election, with both the Coalition and the Greens capitalising on the recent report from the anti-corruption commissioner and the ombudsman into Labor’s culture.
Both parties have introduced their own integrity proposals in recent days.
Labor was quick to seize on Tuesday’s report, with minister Danny Pearson issuing a media release detailing 14 questions Guy “must answer”.
Guardian Australia has made attempts to contact Catlin.
