Investigating networks of corporate influence on government decision-making: The case of Australia’s climate change and energy policies

Abstract

This paper argues that the ability of dominant corporations in the fossil fuel and other polluting industries to shape government policy on climate change and energy issues is directly related to their financial interests in particular countries, and emblematic of the crippling effect which they have exercised on the ability of nation states to decarbonise. Using Australia as an exemplar of the many favourable policy outcomes which powerful corporate interests have secured from successive governments in relation to climate and energy policy, it seeks to demonstrate that covert networks of political influence have played a major role in the decisions made and actions implemented in both areas of policymaking over the last fifteen years. Through detailed empirical analysis of a database of current and former senior politicians, political staffers and bureaucrats with employment links to the fossil fuel and resource extraction industries, it argues that these industries have constructed a covert network of lobbyists and revolving door appointments which has ensured that industry interests continue to dominate Australia's energy policy, and that its emissions from fossil fuel use continue to rise. Covert corporate influence in Australia's energy and resource sectors provides an additional layer of explanation for the persistence of structural biases in its financing, policy and regulatory regimes to those accounts which draw on different forms of discourse and policy analysis. Recent research into the CCCM in the US and Canada has clearly revealed the pervasive and disproportionate influence of fossil energy and resource corporations on climate change and energy politics in two of the world's most politically and economically powerful developed countries [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. This paper contributes to North American CCCM research as a comparative study of similar processes in Australia. It also

The biospheric emergency calls for scientists to change tactics

“…Corporate capture of state institutions , which makes elected officials unwilling to act in favour of the interests of the broader public ( Lucas, 2021 )…”

Multidimensional perspective of social capital and quality of financial decision on corporate value: The case of Pakistan

“…On the other hand, the dependent variable in this study on which the influence of social capital has been investigated is corporate performance or value. Additionally, the study's moderating variable-which moderates the relationship between social capital and corporate performance-has been seen as the decision-quality of the companies (Ullah, Wang, Bashir, et al, 2021b;Lucas, 2021).…”

Wardens of Civilisation: The Political Ecology of Australian Far‐Right Civilisationism

“…Yet given that the mainstream's institutional capacity for power dwarfs that of the far‐right, it is also important to conceptualise the practical‐political divergences in AFR and neoliberal‐conservative civilisationism. Thus the final section of this paper reflects on “fossil fuel hegemony” (Bryson 2021; Lucas 2021) which serves to reveal the tangible threats of civilisationism at work in Australian institutions.…”

“…While the AFR researched here tend towards nostalgia for “traditional” forms of land‐energy colonialism—even cautioning against extractivism in favour of sustaining “towns and agriculture” (Audacity 2019)—fossil fuels have become the touchstone of neoliberal‐conservative elites. Spearheaded by the Liberal and Labour parties and their public‐private revolving door, Australia is one of the most carbon intensive economies on earth (Lucas 2021:3). This fossil fuel goliath developed in concert with the white Australia policy, which reserved “civilised” capitalist development for white workers, whilst maintaining strategic control over land prices and labour markets 2…”

“…Lucas (2021:19) has impressively mapped how, today, extractivist industries in Australia are defined by networks of influence built up over years to further political and financial interests, and how Australia's massive fossil fuel lock‐in is sustained yearly by tens of billions of public dollars that prop up “resource and fossil energy industries through direct subsidies, tax concessions, and favourable policy decisions” disregarding “billions of dollars in externalities which both industries cost Australia every year” 3 . This kind of corruption, developed over decades and centuries to foster the energy supremacy of white Australia, was made possible through the subjugation of Aboriginal land; fossil fuel hegemony is a continuation of ongoing land expropriation since colonisation (Bryson 2021:64).…”