Victorian LHA excoriates Hudson directors Mark Steyn and Kendall Ryan

Photo credit: Hudson Australia website

Correspondence released to Hudson’s creditors on Friday paints a damning and devastating critique of the conduct of the company’s two directors, Mark Steyn (above, left) and Kendall Ryan, (above, right), and also calls into question the information provided to creditors by the company’s administrators, Glenn Livingstone, Benjamin Ho and Nicholas Charwood.

The letters to the administrators from the Victorian Labour Hire Authority (VLHA) provide detailed information about the process and decision-making behind the cancellation of Hudson’s labour hire license in Victoria.  Much of this information was not included in the LHA’s press release of 26 June 2026 announcing Hudson’s license cancellation.

A brief summary of the key information is as follows:

• On 15 May 2026, approximately three weeks after Hudson entered voluntary administration, Erin Barlow, the VLHA’s director of intelligence, compliance and enforcement, provided written notice to Hudson that it was considering the cancellation of its license. The notice included the VLHA’s reasons for proceeding with such a decision. Hudson was given 14 days to challenge the VLHA’s decision.
• The VLHA advised Hudson that the additional powers granted to the VLHA, effective 1 June 2026, were relevant factors in the VLHA’s consideration of Hudson’s license, specifically, (i) a wider range of relevant laws, including corporations law, (ii) the financial viability of the business, and (iii) the capacity of the business to comply with its obligations in the future
• The broadened law does not prescribe a standard of proof the VLHA must meet to form a judgement about the ‘fit and proper person’ test a license holder must satisfy for each relevant person listed on the application. It simply states the VLHA must weigh all relevant considerations and form an overall evaluative judgement.
• Hudson provided the VLHA with two responses to the 15 May Notice: one dated 22 May 2026 and a second response, dated 26 May 2026.
• In evaluating Hudson’s responses, the VLHA also considered the information contained in the four administrators’ Report to Creditors (dated 20 May, 26 May, 17 June and 23 June, 2026, respectively), issued after the VLHA’s original Notice.
• Hudson’s responses “…have focused primarily on the alleged failure by the ATO to enter into productive discussions with Hudson about its PAYG withholding debts and the subsequent application by the ATO of a General Interest Charge,” noted the VLHA

Other information of note, included in the letter, was a list of Hudson’s major creditors:

• • • ATO:                                      $19,461,365
    • ScotPac Finance:                 $12,245, 095
    • Faraday Associates:             $ 1,813,900
    • Internal employees:             $ 3,551,214
    • On-hire employees:             $ 4,459,429
    • Various revenue offices:     $ various

The VLHA also noted that WorkSafe ACT, responsible for labour hire licensing, compliance and enforcement in the Australian Capital Territory, had issued a Show Cause Notice to Hudson (in the correspondence the number of contractors Hudson has on assignment in that jurisdiction is listed as 204).

The VLHA supported its decision to proceed with the cancellation of Hudson’s license on a range of grounds covered by both the existing and expanded powers of the VLHA, most significantly:

The directors’ various failures, failure to accept accountability and, as a result, failing the ‘fit and proper person’ test

Former CEO, Mark Steyn and current CFO, Kendall Ryan, have been the company’s directors, and the only persons listed on Hudson’s labour hire license, for the entire period of conduct that the VLHA considered. The VLHA noted that, “…they controlled and made all major decisions of a company that entered external administration owing significant amounts to statutory creditors” The VLHA concluded they are not ‘fit and proper’ persons for the purposes of the Act (for more details see this blog post).

Specifically, the VLHA noted that in its response Hudson “failed to provide an adequate explanation of the reason for its non-compliance with relevant laws prior to entering external administration. The reasons proffered by Hudson relate to the impact of ‘external factors’ and fail to reflect any accountability on the part of Hudson and its directors for the non-compliance and its impact” and “Hudson has also not provided LHA with evidence of meaningful governance reform such as LHA could be satisfied that it has the capacity to comply with these obligations in the future.”

The VLHA did not accept Hudson’s submission that ‘external factors and ‘factors outside of their control’ were the primary reasons for the company entering external administration. The VLHA concluded Steyn and Ryan were fully accountable and responsible for what happened.

The VLHA’s character assessment of Steyn and Ryan was blunt: “(they) have not demonstrated honesty, integrity and professionalism,” and “the available information shows that Steyn and Ryan have continued to shift responsibility for the accrual of statutory debts at the ATO and others rather than explicitly identifying the reasons for the original non-compliance.”   As ”….the Administrator formed a view its directors are ‘likely’ to have breached their director duties on at least one occasion, it is difficult to accept that the directors had no responsibility for the failure”

The company’s failure to update relevant ‘officers’ on their Victorian labour hire license

The VLHA concluded that Hudson employees, Dean Davidson (appointed CEO in October 2024), Dimity Gill (appointed Chief Revenue Officer in January 2025, Josephine Calabria (appointed Head of Growth in July 2024) and Kimberley Hubble (appointed Head of Talent Solutions in September 2025) were, and remain, persons who meet the definition of ‘officer’ as defined by the Act and should have been declared to the VLAH within 30 days of becoming an officer. Hudson did not, and acknowledges it did not, provide the required notification to the VLHA. The VLHA noted Hudson did not offer any reason why each of these employees did not meet the Act’s definition of officer.

The VLHA noted it had the power to grant the continuity of a licence, while imposing licensing conditions that place additional compliance obligations on the licensee. The VLHA, for the reasons already outlined, declined to exercise that power and confirmed the cancellation of Hudson’s license.

A letter, dated 30 June 2026, to the DOCA proponents from law firm Craddock Murray Neumann (CMN), acting for the Australian Tax Office (ATO), asserts that the information provided to Hudson’s creditors by the administrators was incomplete and that the risks were understated or inadequately assessed. As a result, the creditors’ ability to make a fully informed decision about the company’s prospects under “the Revised DOCA Proposal” compared to liquidation, was compromised.

The correspondence identifies a range of the ATO’s concerns, all previously expressed to Hudson administrators, predominantly about the assumptions underpinning future cash flows, the risk of labour hire license cancellations, and the likelihood of recoveries if any future action against Hudson’s directors and officers for related party transactions is undertaken. CMN noted that the response received by the ATO from the administrators, “…did not accept the significance of the (ATO’s) concerns.”

The ATO’s position, as Hudson’s major creditor, is clear: they want the company liquidated and are unwilling to exercise any discretionary powers to help another option succeed.

The VLHA’s cancellation of Hudsons’ labour hire licence together with the ATO’s action and proposed action outlined in the 30 June 2026 letter rendered the DOCA proposal, accepted by the creditors at the reconvened second meeting on 24 June 2026, dead in the water.

On Monday 6 July the administrators were formally advised by the Deed Proponents that they were unable to execute the DOCA within the statutory 15 days and, as a result, were not proceeding. On the same day, the administrators received updated proposals from WorkPac and HiTech.

The administrators authorised HiTech to commence due diligence and advised creditors, in their circular of Friday 10 July, that “we anticipate receiving an updated binding offer from HiTech in the coming days.”

Hudson’s self-inflicted wounds are many and the likelihood of recovery, without the good graces of the ATO, are remote.

And getting remoter by the day.

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