Victoria's under-fire Assistant Treasurer Danny Pearson has been appointed to the state parliament's privileges committee amid more conflict-of-interest questions.
The Andrews government minister was among four Labor MPs on Thursday confirmed to the seven-member committee, which examines and reports on possible breaches of parliamentary privilege.
In recent days, Mr Pearson has faced intense scrutiny over his stock shares and the shifting of an agency board chaired by his wife to a different portfolio.
The Essendon MP was appointed Consumer Affairs Minister on December 5 in a cabinet reshuffle following Labor's resounding state election win.
His wife was chair of the Business Licensing Authority (BLA) and deputy chair of the Motor Car Traders Claims Committee, with both falling under the control of consumer affairs.
She resigned from her deputy chair role but remained as BLA chair after the government transferred control of the agency to Small Business Minister Natalie Suleyman.
The chain-of-command change was made on the same day he was sworn in, Mr Pearson said, but only gazetted on December 19 and not announced publicly.
Mr Pearson said it was a "fair" solution as it would have been inappropriate for his wife to directly report to him.
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked.
"Is she supposed to lose her job for me, (or) does she report through to me? One is unfair and the other would be improper."
Premier Daniel Andrews defended his selection of Mr Pearson for consumer affairs given his wife's roles and said the problem was managed.
"It was never an issue," he said.
Mr Pearson apologised this week after it was revealed he held up to $100,000 in Commonwealth Bank shares when announcing the big-four bank as one of the winners of a lucrative government contract in 2021.
Mr Pearson conceded it was an error of judgement that could give rise to a "a perception of a conflict of interest", pledging to place all of his shares into a blind trust.
Another five companies benefited from government decisions at the same time Mr Pearson held shares in them but he said he was not the responsible minister for any of those calls.
After pursuing him in parliament all week, Opposition Leader John Pesutto said Mr Pearson had still not provided basic answers and noted NSW finance minister David Tudehope resigned from cabinet last week over a similar shares-related scandal.
"Danny Pearson is an anaconda sliding through the corridors of the Andrews government, chancing on any opportunity to make a buck off Victorians," he said.
Federal ministers were required to sell their shareholdings and divest from blind trusts under a new ministerial code of conduct introduced by the Albanese government last year.
Mr Andrews said Mr Pearson's error was a "timely reminder" to MPs, but moving shares into a blind trust put the matter "beyond doubt".
It's not the first time Andrews government ministers have been caught up in perceived conflicts.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas offloaded his Transurban shares, held in a Westpac BlueChip20 fund, in 2019 after his government awarded the company billions of dollars to build Melbourne's West Gate Tunnel.
Three years later, Lizzie Blandthorn excluded herself from making decisions involving her lobbyist brother's construction and development clients after she became planning minister.
