INSOLVENCY & COMPLIANCE | RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY
Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority stripped the recruitment giant of its licence over an ATO debt and unpaid super; weeks later, ASX-listed HiTech Group picked up its Australian operations for $7 million, a fraction of the $190 million in annualised revenue it was generating.
Melbourne / Sydney
For four decades, Hudson was one of the recognisable names in Australian recruitment, a fixture in government and corporate hiring with a footprint stretching from IT contracting to executive search. In the space of a few months this year, it lost its right to operate as a labour hire provider in Victoria, watched a rescue plan collapse under the weight of a tax office dispute, and was ultimately sold off to a smaller ASX-listed rival for a fraction of what its revenue base was worth. Here is how it happened, and where it landed.
A licence built on a fit and proper person test
On 26 June 2026, Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority cancelled Hudson Global Resources’ labour hire licence, effective from 10 July, finding its directors unfit to operate a labour hire business under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018. The Authority’s published findings were unusually blunt for a regulatory decision: a significant history of unlawful conduct, more than $8 million in unpaid superannuation and wages owed to workers, and an Australian Taxation Office debt exceeding $20 million. It further found Hudson had been trading at a loss for several years, remained under external administration, and was facing active criminal proceedings brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner Steve Dargavel did not mince words.
“We found it unacceptable, as I’m sure competent businesses would, for Hudson to continue to make a mockery of the legal obligations everyone else must comply with,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
Dargavel also rejected the administrator’s own assessment that Hudson could trade its way out of trouble.
“Based on the company’s history and the evidence provided, I’m not satisfied that’s the case,” he said. “Through its conduct, Hudson has badly let down its workforce, customers, creditors and the wider community.”
The Authority’s public release refers to Hudson’s directors collectively rather than naming individuals. The conduct under scrutiny spans the tenure of two long-serving executives closely associated with the company: Mark Steyn, who led a 2018 management buyout to become Group CEO and Managing Director before moving into the non-executive chairman’s role in September 2024, and Kendall Ryan, Hudson’s Group CFO since 2002. Neither has been named in any public enforcement action cited at the time of writing; the findings described here relate to the company and its governance as a whole, and any direct attribution to named individuals should be confirmed against the full published notice before running unedited.
The paper trail goes back further than April
Hudson’s compliance troubles were not a sudden development. According to a timeline of the company’s collapse compiled by recruitment commentator Ross Clennett and corroborated by reporting in The Mandarin, Hudson self-reported wage underpayments to the Fair Work Ombudsman in September 2020 after an internal review found it had applied incorrect awards, or no award at all, to some of its on-hire workforce. The company signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman in December 2021, admitting that 5,325 current and former on-hire employees had been underpaid between 2014 and 2020; back-payments, with interest, were completed by January 2022. In 2025, ASIC laid charges against Hudson for failing to lodge financial accounts for three straight financial years: 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The ATO notice that broke the rescue plan
The immediate trigger for Hudson’s collapse was a dispute with the Australian Taxation Office. On 30 March 2026, the ATO issued a notice to Hudson’s invoice financier, ScotPac, requiring it to redirect 20 per cent of all drawdowns under Hudson’s finance facility directly to the tax office, potentially worth up to $19.6 million. Hudson challenged the notice in the NSW Supreme Court, arguing that it would strip the company of the working capital it needed to keep trading. The court agreed, at least temporarily, finding that enforcing the notice in full would undermine the purpose of Part 5.3A of the Corporations Act by diverting funds needed to pursue a deed of company arrangement or a going-concern sale.
Weeks later, on 22 April 2026, Hudson Global Resources entered voluntary administration, with Glenn Livingstone, Benjamin Ho and Nicholas Charlwood of WLP Restructuring appointed as administrators. At the time, the company owed $5.1 million in unpaid superannuation and held 313 active contracts with federal government entities worth more than $130 million, underlining how deeply embedded Hudson was in public sector recruitment. At the first creditors’ meeting on 5 May, administrators disclosed debts of close to $48 million, including roughly $19 million owed to the ATO, and set aside funds to cover superannuation if creditors backed a deed of company arrangement.
Creditors backed a rescue, then it fell over anyway
Rather than accept a sale, more than 450 Hudson employees, admitted as creditors owed a combined $5 million, initially voted down two rival rescue offers, from IT recruiter HiTech Group and labour hire firm WorkPac, in favour of the administrator’s proposed deed of company arrangement. That deed, according to reporting in the Australian Financial Review, had not been executed as of late June and reportedly included a clause requiring an additional $500,000 payment in August if Hudson’s Victorian licence remained cancelled, suggesting administrators had anticipated the regulatory risk that ultimately materialised. Commissioner Dargavel was openly critical of the arrangement regardless, warning it would extinguish workers’ and other creditors’ claims against the company and likely reduce their chances of recovering what they were owed.
In the end, the deed did not survive. Following the ATO’s court challenge, Hudson was unable to complete the deed of company arrangement within the statutory timeframe required under the Corporations Act. On 15 July 2026, the NSW Supreme Court approved Hudson remaining in voluntary administration while WLP pursued an alternative sale.
HiTech picks up the pieces
That alternative sale process concluded five days later. On 20 July 2026, ASX-listed IT recruiter HiTech Group Australia (ASX: HIT) announced a binding agreement to acquire the Australian operations and selected business assets of Hudson Global Resources out of administration, for upfront consideration of just $7 million, for a business generating an estimated $190 million in annualised revenue.
The deal marks the endpoint of a process that began weeks earlier as a far more modest approach. HiTech’s initial move was the proposal worth up to $15 million for UpperGround, Hudson’s contractor management arm, one of the two rescue offers creditors voted down in favour of the deed of company arrangement. When that arrangement ultimately collapsed, HiTech returned with a considerably larger, and cheaper, offer for the whole Australian business.
Structurally, the transaction is an asset purchase from Hudson’s administrators rather than a takeover of the company itself, a distinction that matters. HiTech is acquiring selected brands, customer relationships, contractor arrangements and operating capability, based on annualised May billings from active contractors intended to transfer across, while leaving Hudson’s historical liabilities, including its unpaid superannuation, wages and roughly $20 million ATO debt, behind with the administrators. The consideration includes a $1 million deposit payable on signing, with up to a further $3 million in deferred payments over 12 months contingent on the acquired business’s future cash generation.
For HiTech, a business built on information and communications technology recruitment and consulting, the acquisition is a significant step outside its core market. Hudson brings the 40-year operating history spanning professional recruitment, IT recruitment, business support, project services and permanent recruitment referenced above, along with a substantial government client base built on the 313 active federal contracts worth more than $130 million it held at the time it entered administration. That government-heavy client list is arguably the more valuable asset in the deal, giving HiTech a national platform and public sector credibility it would otherwise have taken years to build organically.
A cautionary tale for the sector
For an industry that trades on trust, in the workers it places, the hosts that rely on it, and the regulators that license it, Hudson’s collapse is a reminder of how quickly reputational and compliance failures can compound, and how quickly a distressed asset can change hands once they do. Victoria’s tightened labour hire licensing regime, in force since 1 June 2026 with a more stringent fit and proper person test, was designed precisely to catch conduct like this before it caused further harm. Whether the broader recruitment sector treats Hudson’s fall as an isolated case or a warning shot is, for now, an open question. It is worth noting, per the regulator, that the company is entirely unrelated to the separately listed, US-based Hudson Global, which merged with Star Equity Holdings last year, a distinction Staffing Industry Analysts was careful to draw in its own coverage.
Editor’s note: The Labour Hire Authority’s published release refers to directors collectively; the link to Mark Steyn and Kendall Ryan by name reflects their executive tenure and roles, not individual naming in the LHA release. A primary FWO statement and should be verified against the Ombudsman’s public record where possible.
Editor’s note: The $15 million UpperGround proposal and the $7 million binding deal for the wider Australian business are two separate stages of the same saga, not conflicting figures for the same transaction.
Sources
Labour Hire Authority Victoria, media release, “Major recruitment agency has Victorian licence cancelled after directors found unfit to operate a labour hire company”, 26 June 2026: https://www.labourhireauthority.vic.gov.au/latest-news/media-release-major-recruitment-agency-has-victorian-licence-cancelled-after-directors-found-unfit-to-operate-a-labour-hire-company/
Staffing Industry Analysts, “Australian watchdog cancels Hudson Global Resources labour hire licence”, 6 July 2026: https://www.staffingindustry.com/news/global-daily-news/australian-watchdog-cancels-hudson-global-resources-labour-hire-licence
Corrs Chambers Westgarth, “Supreme Court puts ATO notice on ice during voluntary administration”: https://www.corrs.com.au/insights/supreme-court-puts-ato-notice-on-ice-during-voluntary-administration
Pinsent Masons, “NSW Supreme Court blocks tax notice during voluntary administration”: https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/analysis/nsw-supreme-court-blocks-tax-notice-voluntary-administration
Ross Clennett, “Mistakes, bad timing and bad luck: A timeline of Hudson Australia’s slide into administration”, May 2026: https://rossclennett.com/2026/05/mistakes-bad-timing-and-bad-luck-a-timeline-of-hudson-australias-slide-into-administration/
ASIC Published Notices, Hudson Global Resources (Aust) Pty Limited, Voluntary Administration filings, April–May 2026: https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-notices/notice-details/Hudson-Global-Resources-Aust-Pty-Limited-002888762/dc49a064-4fc6-49de-bc58-de057744efac
Market Index, ASX Announcement, “HiTech to Acquire Hudson Global Australia”, 20 July 2026: https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx/hit/announcements/hitech-to-acquire-hudson-global-australia-2A1685005
Stocks Down Under, “HiTech (ASX:HIT) buys A$190m of Hudson revenue for A$7m”: https://stocksdownunder.com/hitech-group-australia-asxhit/
Stocks Down Under, “HiTech Group (ASX:HIT) tables A$15m bid for Hudson’s UpperGround out of administration”: https://stocksdownunder.com/hitech-group-asxhit-upperground-acquisition/
Smallcaps.com.au, “HiTech Group Australia Expands National Platform with Hudson Acquisition”: https://smallcaps.com.au/article/hitech-group-australia-expands-national-platform-with-hudson-acquisition
The Mandarin, “Defence contracting stalwart HiTech buys stricken public sector recruiter Hudson”: https://www.themandarin.com.au/316603-defence-contracting-stalwart-hitech-buys-stricken-public-sector-recruiter-hudson/
