PM has no stake, 7-Eleven owner says

The owner of 7-Eleven in Australia has told a Senate inquiry Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has no financial interest in his company.

The firm has said one student was paid just $325 for 685 hours of work, with others regularly paid as little as $12 per hour. (AAP) Source: AAP

The owner of convenience store giant 7-Eleven in Australia says Malcolm Turnbull has no financial interest in his company.

But the prime minister has a financial stake in the global parent company of the 7-Eleven empire, Fairfax Media claimed on Friday.

Mr Turnbull has shares in two international investment funds that invest in Japanese conglomerate Seven & I Holdings, it said.

Seven & I's major subsidiary is Seven-Eleven Japan, which is the parent company of 7-Eleven in the United States.

The US company in turn licences the billionaire Withers and Barlow family, who own Australia's scandal-plagued stores.

That was news to Russell Withers, who stepped down as chairman of the company following revelations franchisees were underpaying some of its staff on temporary work visas.

"I read it in the media just as you did," he told a Senate inquiry hearing in Canberra on Friday in response to a question from Labor Senator Sue Lines.

"I know nothing of it. The prime minister has certainly no interest in my company."