Regulating Australia's lobbyists: coming full circle to promote democracy?

Abstract

This paper initially examines the history and evolution of lobbying regulations in Australia at both the federal and state levels. This examination is conducted in a comparative context, setting the codes of conduct in place in various Australian jurisdictions against each other, as well as against the lobbying regulations in place in other countries around the world. Based upon this approach, the regulations in each Australian jurisdiction are classified according to their characteristics, providing insights into their commonalities and differences. Thereafter, we examine the attitudes of Australian politicians, administrators and lobbyists, at both the federal and state levels, towards the regulations they have to abide by.

Australian lobbyist registers are not serving the purposes they were designed for

“…A lobbyist registration scheme was first introduced by the federal government in 1983 but was ineffectual because listings were confidential and compliance was poorly monitored . That scheme was abolished in 1996, and it took over a decade for the first Australian jurisdiction to legislate for a lobbyist register.…”

“…Comparison with other similar countries, e.g. the USA and Canada, reflects poorly on the level of transparency in Australia . For example, in Canada, lobbyists' identities have to be declared, along with who they are lobbying and what they are lobbying for .…”

Lobbying by omission: what is known and unknown about harmful industry lobbyists in Australia

“…Other studies have also analysed the prevalence of the revolving door and ministerial diaries (which record meetings between ministers and lobbyists and other stakeholders) ( Wood and Griffiths, 2018 ; Cullerton et al , 2019 ; Robertson et al , 2019 ; Lucas, 2021 ). Several reports have compared the evolution and differing requirements of federal, state and territory registers ( Hogan, Murphy et al , 2011 , Hogan, Chari et al , 2011 ; McKeown, 2014 ; Robertson et al , 2018 ).…”

New Zealand media camouflage political lobbying

“…In Australia, there were 597 registered lobbyists representing 1735 clients in 2016 (Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2017). This register excludes lobbyists working for charities, religious groups and NGOs, so the total figure is estimated to be more than 1000 active lobbyists working in Canberra (Hogan et al, 2011). In the USA there were 11,166 registered lobbyists in 2016, with businesses spending more than US$3 billion each year on the activity (Center for Responsive Politics, 2017).…”