Revealed: more than half of lobbyists have previous history within government or parties and a quarter were staffers

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

More than half of all Australian lobbyists previously worked inside government or for the major political parties, with one in four staffing the offices of ministers, parliamentary secretaries or backbenchers.

Guardian Australia has investigated the backgrounds of all 483 individuals listed on July’s federal lobbyist register, checking each for a history in federal or state government, either as politicians, political staffers, party officials or public servants.

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The analysis, believed to be the first of its kind, reveals 255 lobbyists, or 52.8%, have a previous history within government or political party hierarchies.

It also revealed one in four lobbyists have worked as staffers – policy advisers, chiefs of staff, or electorate or media officers – to Australian politicians.



Senior advisers to state mining ministers have left to lobby for miners, premiers’ chiefs of staff have joined firms representing the gambling industry, advisers to health ministers have joined pharmaceutical giants, and senior advisers to the Queensland government have moved to Adani.

Experts warn the revolving door risks creating a “culture of mateship” between big business, interest groups and the government. The Grattan Institute researcher Danielle Wood said the coziness between government and powerful private interests could pose a threat to the democratic process.

“It’s human nature to be more sympathetic to arguments from those we know and like,” Wood said. “This is a risk to policy making: decision makers should be listening to the groups with the best ideas, not simply those with the best connections.”

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The analysis also shows a vast number of ex-government officials whose past is hidden on the lobbyist register.

The register, which serves as the public’s window into the world of lobbying, only flags lobbyists as former government representatives if they were a federal minister, parliamentary secretary, ministerial staffer, public servant or defence force member.

The narrow focus excludes many who have held influential positions in politics, and is weaker than the stance taken in some state and territory jurisdictions and in many developed nations.

The Guardian’s analysis shows the register doesn’t show the past government links of at least 75 lobbyists, including former state premiers, party assistant secretaries and chiefs of staff to federal opposition leaders.

A separate analysis of six years of archived lobbyist registers suggests former politicians and government officials are becoming increasingly dominant in the world of lobbying. The total number of lobbyists has dropped but the number of individuals listed by the register as former government representatives has increased.

In 2012 about 150 of the 590 lobbyists registered federally were listed as meeting the register’s criteria for being a former government representatives, a proportion of about 25%.

Their dominance has grown every year since. The latest register from September lists 200 of 535 lobbyists, or 37%, as former government representatives.

Neither of the analyses includes in-house lobbyists. In-house lobbyists are harder to define, but are generally employed directly by big corporations or peak interest groups as government relations advisers. They could include a government relations director employed within a multinational mining company, for example.

In-house lobbyists largely operate without scrutiny or transparency in federal parliament.

Quick guide Political lobbying in Australia: the basics Show Hide What do lobbyists do? Lobbyists attempt to influence government policy or decisions on behalf of either a client or their own organisation. Ethical lobbying is a valuable and important element of a healthy democracy. It helps those who have a stake in government policy to convey their views and expertise. There are two broad types of lobbyists: third-party lobbyists, who are engaged as consultants; in-house lobbyists, who work directly for corporations or interest groups. Who hires lobbyists? For many Australians, lobbying conjures images of powerful corporations working to sway politicians behind the scenes. There is a truth in that. The big banks, mining and energy giants, pharmaceutical companies, casinos, Amazon, Google and Facebook all engage lobbyists. But lobbyists also work on behalf of not-for-profits and community groups, including for veterans, social workers, aged-care staff, school principals and environmental organisations. What is the lobbyist register? The lobbyist register is the public's only window into the world of lobbying. It's a publicly available online list of lobbying firms, individual lobbyists and their clients. The register was a huge step forward when it was introduced in 2008, but remains frustratingly opaque. It doesn't tell us who is lobbying whom, about what, or when. Compare that with the ACT, where lobbyists are required to file quarterly reports on their activities, or NSW, where ministers are required to publish their diaries. The federal register is also completely blind to the activities of in-house lobbyists. What is the lobbyist code of conduct? The code tells lobbyists how they must behave when approaching the government and is designed to maintain ethical standards. But the code is not legislated and has no real teeth. It goes largely unenforced and the punishments are weak. The worst sanction available to authorities is removing a lobbyist from the register. The US and Canada have fines or jail terms for law breaches. Who keeps an eye on lobbyists? Federally it's the prime minister's department that loosely oversees lobbying. It takes on a largely administrative role, rather than an investigative or regulatory one. Its core job is to maintain the register and communicate the code's requirements to lobbyists. It lacks independence, relies on reports of bad lobbying and rarely, if ever, takes enforcement action.

Anti-corruption advocates say the analysis highlights the “revolving doors syndrome” in politics, where powerful figures freely move between industry and government.

Cooling-off periods of 18 months for ministers and parliamentary secretaries and 12 months for senior public servants and military figures are designed to prevent the use of inside knowledge or contacts to wield inappropriate influence.

But the cooling-off periods, themselves weak by international standards, are barely enforced and don’t apply in many cases. The former Labor resources minister Martin Ferguson, for example, left parliament and became the chair of the advisory board to the peak body for the oil and gas industry, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

Ferguson does not meet the definition of a lobbyist because he works for a peak body.

Lobbying plays an important role in any democracy, experts say, and there are clear benefits to having former government representatives in lobbying roles.

It’s almost a standard career path for staffers these days, backwards and forwards through the lobbying industry John Warhurst, academic

They help their clients understand how government works, how policy is formulated, and can navigate the complexities of the federal public service.

But Transparency International Australia’s chief executive, Serena Lillywhite, said the absence of regulation of movements between government and lobbying was creating cozy relationships.

“Inadequate regulation of the movement of staff between government and industry – the revolving doors syndrome – contributes to a ‘culture of mateship’ that can, and indeed has, enabled inappropriate influence and in some cases conviction and imprisonment,” Lillywhite told Guardian Australia.

Australian National University’s Prof John Warhurst said it was not inherently bad to have former government representatives lobbying, but he said it often “feeds into a perception and the reality of politics as an insider’s business”.

“It’s very much in the family,” he said. “It’s almost a standard career path for staffers these days, backwards and forwards through the lobbying industry.”

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Warhurst and a fellow academic, Darren Halpin, completed their own analysis of lobbying trends in 2016, analysing registry data in 2012 and 2014. They found, among other things, that about 65% of those hiring third-party lobbyists were private companies.

Warhurst said hiring lobbyists was costly and the expense created an imbalance of influence.

“It’s dangerous in that it’s an imbalance between certain sections of government and the rest when it comes to influencing public policy,” he said.

• This reporting is supported by the Susan McKinnon Foundation through the Guardian Civic Journalism Trust