Her Politics: Is the ACT Lobbyist Register a toothless tiger?

Posted on 16 January, 2015

The ACT government made the move to introduce a Register of Lobbyists after more findings of the Independent Commission against Corruption in New South Wales were made public in August 2014. The announcement brought the total number of NSW Liberal MPs whose ministerial careers have been ended due to their mismanagement of campaign funding to seven. The MPs are accused of using their power and influence to do favours for Liberal Party donors in exchange for financial compensation. The hope in NSW is that tough new lobbying regulations, separating lobbyists from party office-holding, and increased transparency surrounding all dealings with ministers will rectify the situation. The ACT government doubtless hopes that introducing a Register of Lobbyists will serve to prevent the same situation from occurring here.

But since the ACT Register of Lobbyists came into effect on 1 January 2015 only three lobbyists (two companies and one individual) have signed up. What does this mean? Are there only three lobbyists in Canberra? Does this mean our ACT politicians are generally free from lobbying and therefore at a low risk for corruption?

Unfortunately this is not the case.

The ACT Register of Lobbyists is designed to regulate lobbyists and alleviate concerns associated with the excesses of advocacy. If the public, journalists and academics know more about who lobbies, who they target for lobbying activities and how much money is spent on lobbying what, then lobbyists and government officials can be held more accountable for their attempts to influence government decision making.

The register also provides public officials who are being lobbied with the transparency necessary to enable them to better assess the views being presented, seek alternative views and submit to the transparency necessary to prove they are acting in an ethical manner to represent the public who elected them. More regulation would theoretically minimise the power and influence wielded by vested interests in certain areas of our society. This aims to prevent major abuse of power by political operatives and special interests holding an undue amount of power in their industry which they use to shape public policy for the narrowest of interests.

The ACT regulations are allegedly the toughest lobbying rules in the country but they still only apply to third-party lobbyists and for the most part, miss the point. As with the Federal register, the ACT Register of Lobbyists has a loophole. Lobbyists can avoid registering by becoming a non-voting director of the company that they are speaking for. Companies are not considered to be lobbying when speaking on their own behalves. Unfortunately this means the ACT Lobbyist Register, despite the best of intentions, doesn’t tell the full story. In-house lobbyists working directly for the company they lobby for are not counted. In NSW, the lobbyists who have been exposed as corrupt were more often than not business owners, chief executives and board members. These types of lobbyists do not need to register under the ACT regulations.

In fact, the list of individuals who are exempt from registering also highlights this failing. Lobbying activities conducted by religious bodies, charities, not-for-profits including trade unions, foreign trade delegations, those registered under government laws where dealings with government are part of their work such as architects, customs brokers, doctors, accountants and lawyers, and individuals who conduct lobbying activities for friends and relatives on personal issues. This is a long list of lobbyists who are attempting to exert influence over our elected representatives of whom there is no oversight or transparency of activities. The register is therefore not recording the right information to make the process necessarily transparent so voters can see where our elected representatives are being influenced on certain issues and why.

In addition, registrants have no obligation to report what they do or how much money they spend. So we don’t know what issues are being lobbied, who is being lobbied or how much has been spent lobbying on an issue. This defeats the purpose of registering the lobbyists in the first place.

While the ACT Lobbyist Register clearly doesn’t go far enough in its attempts to increase the transparency around lobbying activities in our territory, it is a first step. The Register has been established and can be built upon to develop the transparency necessary to maintain high ethical standards in our public representatives. We need to fight against falling standards in public life and this fight is not only up to our elected representatives. Civil society, business and trade unions also need to pitch in not only to encourage ethical standards, but also to ensure that our public figures remain accountable to them. Establishment of the register is a demonstration of intent from the ACT government that it is not only a part of this fight, but will step up to lead it.

We also need to consider that a Register of Lobbyists cannot regulate personal and institutional failure. There’s not much that registrations and legislation can do to halt self-interest and personal advantage overcoming the drive to serve the public interest that most public figures set out to fulfil. In addition, influence is usually exercised via the establishment of relationships. These relationships are usually solidified long before the political operatives have any power of use and are usually strong, and personal. Following a code of conduct in the face of close friendship requires extremely strong moral character. We must begin expecting this of our politicians and holding them to these high standards in ways which supplement the benefits of the Register.

Feature image courtesy of Australian politics concept courtesy of Shutterstock.