Leading lobbyists are urging the federal government to strengthen investigative powers and penalties to crack down on rogue operators, including through new laws that would add corporate interests to a transparency register.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told Guardian Australia this week that the party would use its balance of power position to push for tougher rules on the cashed-up lobbying industry in the new parliament, calling current rules“really weak and effectively nonexistent”.
The attorney general’s department administers a transparency register, but it only covers paid third-party lobbyists and their clients. Lobbyists employed internally by corporations and interest groups are not required to sign up.
A parliamentary report in 2024 found as much as 80% of the industry was not required to adhere to transparency rules. Worse, breaches of the associated lobbying code of conduct are not made public. The department said the number of breaches has been increasing in recent years, but how bureaucrats dealt with them was not made public.
Andrew Cox, the president of industry peak body the Australian Professional Government Relations Association, said tougher rules and bigger penalties were needed.
Cox said the department “should have more robust powers to investigate and punish those who engage in unregistered lobbying” and that “there should be meaningful consequences for breaching the government’s code of conduct”.
“We support transparency where measures seeking to achieve it … do not unreasonably add to the administrative burden or create a chilling effect on the roles of government relations practitioners.”
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The powerful New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption warned a federal parliamentary inquiry that unregulated lobbying allows private interests “to exert undue influence over official decision-making, while diminishing trust in government and increasing the risk of corruption”.
One influential lobbyist who declined to be named so they could speak freely warned that a small number of players exaggerated their influence and access in Canberra.
“There are a small number of third-party lobbyists who like to pretend the only way to talk to government is through them. That’s bullshit – that’s greasy and it’s gross,” they said.
“Staffers and ministers see through them, and they’re not taken seriously.”
They said lobbyists “who understand how government works can be incredibly valuable to the government and to business”.
The managing director of Hawker Britton, Simon Banks, said the rules should be strengthened.
“At the moment, at the commonwealth level, we have an administrative scheme. We would support a legislative scheme that makes sure there are clear rules and standards but also a legal mechanism to enforce them.
“The arrangements currently in place only apply to third-party lobbyists. I don’t see why the general standards enforced by a code of conduct should apply to me but not someone who is in there lobbying on behalf of an organisation [they work for].”
The code of conduct was designed to govern contact between lobbyists and government representatives, and promote “transparency, integrity and honesty”.
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A growing group of MPs support changes to access rules at Parliament House. In mid-2024, there were more than 2,050 sponsored passes for the building, an unknown share of which were held by paid lobbyists.
The inquiry warned there was no interaction between the lobbyist register and the pass approval system, despite access being an important tool for the industry.
Banks said pass holders’ names should be made public, along with MPs who sponsor them.
“I actually think if you disclose the full range of people who have their passes, you’d find there is a broader range of people who can access this building,” Banks said.
Ben Oquist, a director at lobbying firm DPG Advisory Solutions, said stronger rules would benefit the industry.
“Businesses, NGOs and the public should all have the chance to engage with government and share their views or concerns, including with professional help,” Oquist said.
“Lobbying can play an important role in this democratic process.Lobbyingcan indeed be good. When done right, it can help shape better public policy outcomes. But if the industry does not live up to community expectations, it risks losing all public trust.
“That is why a strong, transparent and loophole-free regulatory regime would be good for everyone.”
The Kooyong MP, Monique Ryan, linked powerful lobbying to Labor’s controversial approval of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project out to 2070 last month.
She said more transparency was badly needed.
“Fossil fuel industry lobbyists do not deserve more influence than our constituents,” she said.
“We deserve to know who is roaming the halls of parliament – and we should know when our ministers and senior public servants meet with them. We should open ministerial diaries in real time, and we must extend, reform and enforce the lobbyists’ code of conduct.
“We have to close the revolving doors between ministerial and senior public service roles and the industries over which they have influence.”