Senior state bureaucrats withheld documents from integrity agencies about Matthew Guy’s financial settlement of a botched planning decision because they feared the multimillion-dollar payout had no legal basis.

Departmental and legal notes tabled in Parliament on Monday reveal the state’s top planning officers were troubled about inquiries by the Victorian Ombudsman and Auditor-General over the $3.5 million (including costs) settlement of the planning saga on Phillip Island.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy Credit:AAP

The documents were part of massive 80,000-page dossier, including confidential cabinet and legal briefs, tabled by the Andrews government in State Parliament on Monday.

They show that in 2013, in his role as Baillieu-Napthine government planning minister, Mr Guy insisted on settling a lawsuit over his rezoning of farmland near the hamlet of Ventnor because he feared losing his job if the case went to court.