Australia’s parliaments aren’t just filled with MPs, staff and media – but also armies of lobbyists seeking an audience or a coffee with the people who can affect their interests with the stroke of a pen.
Millions of dollars are at stake. Will the government rezone land? Tweak a law that makes an activity legal? Exempt an activity from tax or grant an environmental approval?
Having transparency and a few rules about what’s an acceptable interaction between MPs and lobbyists is fundamental to a healthy democracy.
In New South Wales, there has been long-standing concern that the lobbyist rules are woefully inadequate.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has repeatedly sounded the alarm in investigation reports and held two inquiries specifically about the corruption risks of lobbying. Both are gathering dust.
At this week’s estimates hearings, the Icac commissioner, John Hatzistergos, a former NSW Labor attorney general, could barely hide his frustration at the Minns government.
With the precision of a barrister, he outlined his interactions.
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“I wrote again to the premier and the special minister on 7 July 2025, following up from previous correspondence by me on 21 January 2025, 29 May 2025 and 30 October 2023,” Hatzistergos said.
“Yesterday, I received a response.
“Relevantly, the special minister informed me that ‘the recommendations of the commission’s Operation Eclipse report raised complex issues requiring careful consideration. However, progressing the reform to the framework for lobbying in NSW was a high priority and the government is aiming to implement reforms as soon as possible.”
“That just sounds like they’re kicking it into the long grass,” said Liberal MP Chris Rath, whose own side of politics had not exactly rushed to deal with lobbying reform either.
Hatzistergos said he had offered his assistance in progressing the reforms and sent them briefs on what other states were doing – but it has seemingly gone nowhere.
Why do we care about lobbying rules?
“Although lobbying can have a positive impact on government decision making, it carries many hidden risks of corruption and undue influence,” Icac said when it released its Eclipse report in 2021.
The key finding of Eclipse was that urgent action was needed to fill the gaping holes in the scheme.
In 2011 NSW passed the Lobbying of Government Officials Act (the Logo Act) but as Hatzistergos has repeatedly told the government that not all of the recommendations made more than a decade ago in Icac’s Operation Halifax report (November 2010) were adopted, leaving regulatory “gaps”.
So Icac had another go in Operation Eclipse in 2021.
First Icac wanted the lobbyist register extended beyond those working as guns for hire in firms like Premier State, Newgate or GRACosway to include in-house lobbyists working directly for companies and organisations.
There are many more of these and it makes a joke of the regulations to only cover the third-party lobbyists.
Icac also urged extending the rules to local government as there are important and lucrative decisions being taken at this level as well.
Icac also recommended a dedicated NSW lobbying commissioner whose primary purpose is to regulate the Logo Act.
It wanted the lobbyists code of conduct, which primarily creates obligations for lobbyists, be expanded to create obligations for government officials who are lobbied, (that is, the lobbied). At the moment there are almost no obligations on the officials.
Icac also recommended identifying “high-risk” public servants, such as officials who grant mining licences or sign off on major developments.
It wanted them restricted for six months from going to work for companies that had lobbied them.
It may come as a surprise that secret meetings or cosy dinners are not currently prohibited under the lobbying code of conduct.
Icac wanted a prohibition on undocumented or secret meetings with lobbyists, with requirements to document all communications with lobbyists, including those held away from government premises.
Icac also tried to tackle the thorny issue of fundraising events.
Lobbyists and their clients are regular attendees at political dinners – and it’s not just big events in a Chinese restaurant or club. Often political parties will stage intimate dinners with a minister and charge thousands of dollars for the privilege.
As for the ministerial diaries, Icac said these should be published monthly (instead of quarterly) and be sufficiently detailed for public scrutiny of the reason for each meeting. (They are currently woefully inadequate in their detail.)
As Icac said of the current scheme: “It fails to provide a proper and sufficiently robust framework to manage corruption risks and fails to provide assurance to the general public that democratic principles of transparency, accountability, integrity and fairness are being met.”
Hatzistergos said on Wednesday that other states are moving to modernise their lobbying laws. Queensland is holding an inquiry, South Australia is considering a detailed report and Victoria has just concluded public consultation. NSW had been out in front but now lags well behind best practice.
Hatzistergos is up against the age-old dynamic of cosy relationships: no one on the inside of politics wants to change. It is only the people who are not inside the tent that lose out in a system that is clearly open to corruption.
• Anne Davies is Guardian Australia’s NSW political correspondent
