Mistakes, bad timing and bad luck: A timeline of Hudson Australia’s slide into administration
The more that comes to light about the Hudson Australia voluntary administration, the gloomier the picture becomes.
Here’s a brief timeline of significant events in the life of Hudson Global Resources (Aust) Pty Limited.
1999: Morgan and Banks shareholders agree to a merger with TMP Worldwide
2003: TMP Worldwide is split into the monster.com job board business and the staffing business, Hudson Highland (later renamed Hudson Australia).
2018: Hudson Global sells Hudson Asia Pacific to Apache Group, which comprised members of the local management team led by CEO Mark Steyn for $6 million. Apache Group also acquires the business’s short-term debt in Asia Pacific ($6.3m) and continues to trade under the name Hudson Australia (no common ownership with the global company Hudson Talent Solutions).
November 2019: Hudson signs a deal with talent platform Expert360, predicting the alliance will significantly reduce the time it takes Hudson to match candidates to roles. The AFR reports that the deal is forecast to add $500 million in annual work to Expert360's platform.
January 2020: Hudson establishes flexhive by Hudson, a talent platform that provides a range of pre-screened talent, including remote workers based in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia.
June 2020: Aggregate data for the Federal Government’s Recruitment and Related Services panel is published, covering the six financial years 2013-14 to 2018-19. By contract value, Hudson is in 3rd place with contracts valued at $63.3 million, a long way behind the number one provider, Hays Australia ($486.6 million)
September 2020: Hudson self-reports underpayments to on-hire workers to the FWO, after an internal review found that it had applied the wrong awards to some workers and incorrectly failed to apply any award to others. A subsequent review covering most on-hire employees found Hudson had failed to pay the required minimum pay rates, casual loading, overtime, public holiday penalty rates, shift work penalties ,and allowances. It had also failed to provide required meal breaks and minimum shift engagements.
December 2021: Hudson commits to rectifying underpayments as part of an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) signed with the Fair Work Ombudsman. Hudson admits that 5,325 current and former on-hire employees were underpaid $3.46 million in wages and $345,617 in superannuation between 2014 and 2020. Hudson is required to back-pay all known underpayments and superannuation, plus accumulated interest of $754,663.35, by January 2022. Hudson is also required to make a $172,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund. As part of the EU, Hudson commits to establishing a specialist on-hire support team to approve award coverage and pay rates for each new on-hire placement.
2021: Hudson enters into an invoice finance facility with Scottish Pacific Business Finance Pty Ltd (ScotPac). Under the facility, ScotPac agrees to advance up to 85% of Hudson’s receivables in exchange for fees, charges and rights of assignment.
21 May 2022: The Federal Labor Party wins government after nine years in opposition.
December 2022: Hudson’s annual disclosed Federal Government billings peak at $159 million from 1,188 contracts, an almost trebling of billings since 2018.
May 2023: The Department of Finance’s Audit of Employment within the Australian Public Service is released. The audit’s examination of the 2021-22 financial year concludes that roughly 54,000 full time-equivalent roles are occupied by external workers, on top of the 144,000 staff directly employed in the APS. At the launch of the audit, public service minister Katy Gallagher commits the government to replacing on-hire workers with permanent public servants.
September 2024: Group CEO Mark Steyn moves to the role of Non-Executive Chairman, replaced by Dean Davidson, who is elevated from a divisional CEO role. Martin Hayden, a member of the original management buyout team (then COO), departs Hudson after the closure of Flexhive by Hudson, having served as its CEO since October 2021.
2025: ASIC issues charges against Hudson Australia for failure to lodge financial accounts for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 financial years.
2025: The Queensland government’s disclosed annual spend with Hudson drops 73% from its 2023 peak of $100 million to $27 million in 2025.
December 2025: Hudson’s annual disclosed Federal Government billings drop 38% from their 2022 peak to $95 million from 516 contracts in 2025.
30 March 2026: The ATO issues a Notice to ScotPac, requiring them to remit 20% of all drawdowns to the ATO.
22 April 2026: Hudson Global Resources (Aust) Pty Limited enters voluntary administration appointing WLP Restructuring to manage the process, aimed at restructuring and recapitalising to address legacy financial issues. The Administrators state they will continue to trade the Company on a business-as-usual basis, with no interruption to operations, employment or customer contracts, as the restructuring process is initiated. Hudson holds approximately $950,000 in cash and owes ScotPac the equivalent of four weeks of receivables. ScotPac declines any further drawdowns while Hudson remains in voluntary administration.
30 April 2026: The Federal Government disclosed billings of $24 million across 171 contracts with Hudson for the first four months of 2026.
^April 2026: The administrators negotiate a new funding agreement with ScotPac. The administrators draw down on the new funding agreement and ScotPac remits approximately $804,000 to the ATO in compliance with the ATO Notice. The administrators write to the Commissioner requesting that the ATO Notice be withdrawn on the basis that Hudson was in voluntary administration. The Commissioner declines to withdraw the ATO Notice.
4 May 2026: Awardedtenders website publishes article stating AusTender records show $925.7 million in federal billings to Hudson since 2015 across 100 agencies with 461 contracts worth $132.5m remaining active — concentrated on the Department of Finance's People Panel and the DTA's Digital Marketplace. The most valuable current customer is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with $20 million worth of current contracts. At the state and territory level, the Queensland government is reported to have the largest visible Hudson disclosure, with the consolidated feed recording approximately $279 million in disclosed contract value across 2,582 notices since 1995.
5 May 2026: The first creditors' meeting is held. The administrators outline the company’s debts to the tune of nearly $48 million, comprised of $12.5m to secured creditors (majority to ScotPac), $5.2m super ($4m Jan - April 2026, $1.2m 1 - 22 April), $2.3m other employee entitlements and $27.6m to 19 unsecured creditors (including approximately $19 m to the ATO). The administrators advise a draft deed of company arrangement (DOCA) has been put forward by a consortium of management and directors of Hudson to recapitalise the business
8 May 2026: Deadline for indicative offers to be submitted to TIP Group, corporate advisers to the administrators
11 May 2026: The AFR reports sources as stating Hudson “has been unprofitable for some time.” In response, the administrators issue a statement: “We will be assessing the Company’s historical financial information and causes for its current financial position as part of our ongoing investigations, the details of which will be confirmed and disclosed to creditors in our 439A report ahead of the second meeting of creditors.”
18 May 2026: Deadline for binding conditional offers to be submitted to TIP Group.
The hard-to-escape conclusion from events over the past eight years of Hudson’s most recent ownership is that five key factors have led Hudson to their current state:
a rapid decline in Federal Government work after the election of Labor Government in 2022,
an even larger drop-off in state and territory government work over the same period,
unprofitable new ventures
poor financial management
unfavourable economic conditions
#20 May 2026: The NSW Supreme Court rules on an urgent application (under Section 440B - Restriction of third-party rights, and Section 447A - General Power of the Court) by the Administrators to restrain operation of the ATO's Notice of 30 March 2026. The Court rules in favour of the Administrators concluding that the Notice effectively redirected funds to the ATO and deprived the Administrators of cash flow that would otherwise be used to preserve the business and maximise return to creditors. The Court accepted that the Notice should be stayed for the limited purposes of advancing the voluntary administration. Given its impact on the ATO’s enforcement powers, the decision may be subject to future appeal. The administrators are unsuccessful in clawing back payments made by ScotPac to the ATO after the date of voluntary administration.
*27 May 2026: The second creditors' meeting is adjourned after a proposed DOCA is withdrawn before the meeting and no other proposals or offers are tabled for consideration. The Administrators advise that they expect to release a supplementary report outlining the details to be voted on when the second meeting reconvenes. If no DOCA(s) or offers deemed by the Administrators to be worthy of creditors' consideration materialise, the company will be liquidated.
**24 June 2026: The second creditors' meeting reconvenes. Three proposals are presented to the meeting. The administrators recommend an internal management buyout led by Hudson executives, including its CEO and CFO, over rival offers from ASX-listed HiTech Group and WorkPac. More than 450 Hudson employees voted for the internal option, which establishes a $16.2 million creditors' trust in exchange for extinguishing all claims against the directors.
**26 June 2026: Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority (LHA) cancels Hudson’s labour hire licence. The cancellation effectively bans the company from operating in the state, with the LHA having formed the view that Hudson contravened the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic), noting: the significant history of unlawful conduct by Hudson, including breaches of workplace, taxation, corporations and labour hire laws; substantial unpaid debts to workers, the government and creditors, including over $8 million in unpaid superannuation and wages, and an ATO debt of over $20 million; issues with compliance capacity, given Hudson is under external administration, is subject to active criminal proceedings from ASIC, has traded at a loss for several years, and has not demonstrated meaningful accountability or governance reform; several transactions were identified by the company administrator as likely representing breaches of directors’ duties, including forgiveness of $11 million in debts owed by related companies and failure to declare its CEO and other executives as decision-makers within the company, in contravention of the Act. The licence cancellation takes effect on 10 July 2026.
It looks to be a very, very tough road back from here.
*updated 29 May, 2026
#updated 5 June 2026 (shout out to Sean Walters's post)
^updated 16 June 2026
** updated 29 June 2026
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