Exclusive: Longman candidate Matthew Stephen gave incorrect information to government regulator about transfer of tiling company subject to $13,000 damages

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The One Nation candidate in the Longman federal byelection, Matthew Stephen, has tried to avoid a $13,000 court-ordered damages bill against his tiling company by selling the company on paper to an Irish novice labourer, two years after the man had left Australia.



A Guardian Australia investigation into Stephen’s business dealings has found incorrect information in documents he certified and filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2016.

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Stephen claims he is no longer responsible for the payment of a $13,769.99 debt, imposed by the Northern Territory local court as damages for a substandard tiling job in 2014, because he sold his company in August 2016 and the new owner agreed to take on the remaining liability.



Documents lodged by Stephen with Asic state he sold Aus Tile QLD to Irishman “Steven O’Donovan” two months after the court judgment.

O’Donovan’s ownership of the company is a “non-beneficial” shareholding, meaning on paper he holds the share, for the benefit of someone else. The company’s registered address and principal place of business remains Matthew Stephen’s home address.

Darwin builder Phillip Hoare, who took Aus Tile QLD to court, says he still hasn’t been paid about $11,000 of the damages awarded. Hoare complained to Asic that the sale of the business had led to the company being passed on to someone of limited means.

He says he has not been able to find O’Donovan since the sale.



‘A labourer learning to tile’

Matthew Stephen told the NT local court he was unable to undertake a tiling job in 2014 and instead referred it to “Steven O’Donovan”, an Irish “labourer learning to tile”.



When claiming he was not responsible for the substandard tiling work, Matthew Stephen tendered to the court an invoice he said was from O’Donovan and a business named “Stephen Dunux Tiling”.

The invoice did not contain an Australian business number and listed the details of a Commonwealth Bank account for “Stephen O’Donovan”.

No business with that name has ever been registered.



“Mr Stephen purported to be in contact with Mr O’Donovan but did not call him in evidence,” Judge Alan Woodcock said.

Woodcock rejected or did not accept several pieces of evidence given by Matthew Stephen.

He “did not find proved” Stephen’s claim in court that he referred the job to O’Donovan. Instead, Woodcock found that Aus Tile QLD was contracted to perform the tiling works and awarded damages against the company in the amount of $13,769.99.

Two months after the court judgment, on 31 August 2016, Stephen lodged documents with Asic registering the sale of Aus Tile QLD to O’Donovan. He told Hoare in emails the company had been sold and that the new owner had agreed to take on the outstanding debt.

The Asic document, which Stephen certified was “true and complete”, said O’Donovan lived at an address on Gardens Hill Crescent at The Gardens, a suburb of Darwin. Hoare said he went to that address in 2016 and that no one in the complex had heard of a Steven or Stephen O’Donovan.

Guardian Australia spoke to the resident at the specific townhouse where Asic was told O’Donovan lived.

“I’ve lived here since 2014 and I’ve never heard of that person,” she said.

There is no record of Steven O’Donovan or Stephen O’Donovan on the electoral roll or any Australian register of tradespeople.

An man in Cork

Matthew Stephen submitted documents to Asic that said the buyer of his business, “Steven” O’Donovan, was born on 27 March 1989, in Cork, Ireland.

Stephen O’Donovan’s social media accounts confirm his birthday is 27 March and that he is from Cork, Ireland.

His Facebook profile shows him in Darwin on 11 October 2014. On 23 October 2014, O’Donovan was pictured back in Cork. “Delighted to have you back,” one family member commented on the post.



Matthew Stephen gave evidence to the court that Steven O’Donovan conducted the tiling job in Darwin in October 2014. Tiles were due to be delivered to the property on 24 October.

Guardian Australia contacted Stephen O’Donovan through his Facebook page. He said: “Would this matter not be dealt by the proper authoritys [sic]? Not a reporter.”

Hoare claims he has repeatedly asked Stephen to prove the sale of his company was genuine. He has never produced evidence of a valid sale contract and did not respond to Guardian Australia’s requests to do so.

Licence suspended seven times

Matthew Stephen looms as the kingmaker at the Longman byelection. One Nation preferences are widely expected to decide the outcome.

As a political candidate, he relates the experience as a story about overcoming adversity. His Queensland trades licence has been suspended seven times.



In a video on Facebook, he said “the big end of town kicked me in the guts” and didn’t pay his bills, and that he “worked for 18 hours a day, with these calluses on these hands” in order to meet his own commitments.



“As the final weeks of the Longman byelection play out, politically motivated attacks on Mr Stephen have conveniently raised their head,” the candidate said in a statement to the Guardian.

“Mr Stephen maintains he has met every payment owed to creditors during a financial slump in his building career.

“Mr Stephen sold Aus Tile QLD Pty Ltd in [August] of 2016 for an undisclosed amount. In accordance with the contract, all liabilities were the responsibility of the new owners.”

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The One Nation candidate did not give responses to several questions sent by Guardian Australia. Those questions included: why a man living in Ireland would buy a “non-beneficial” interest in a tiling company with an unpaid debt; why he supplied Asic with an incorrect address for Steven O’Donovan; and why he told the Northern Territory local court that O’Donovan had completed the job, when his Facebook profile shows he was in Ireland.



Hoare said “the thing that pissed me off the most” was Stephen labelling stories about his unpaid debts “fake news” being spread by “Labor and the unions”.

“We’re all Liberal voters,” Hoare said. “We’re relying on the One Nation party to get the Liberals in in Longman.”