More registered lobbyists in South Australia than politicians
It’s official. South Australian now has more companies registered to lobby politicians than we have actual active politicians.
SA News
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There are now more companies registered to lobby politicians in South Australia than there are sitting state MPs.
An analysis of the State’s Lobbyist Register reveals 80 firms are registered as active, with 421 companies listed as clients, compared to 69 seats in South Australia’s parliament. The number of lobbying firms is up from 65 in late 2017, while the number of companies they lobby for has fallen from 450.
And while third-party lobbying companies must be listed and provide an annual return of their activities, there is no such register for internal lobbyists who work for companies.
Fourteen former politicians are registered lobbyists in SA.
Anecdotally top firms such as Bespoke Approach and GC Advisory can demand up to $30,000 per month for their services.
Former federal defence minister Christopher Pyne is half owner of GC Advisory (soon to be called Pyne Partners) with his former staffer Adam Howard. Former Labor state transport minister Patrick Conlon is now working for two clients after a big trim of his client list following last year’s state election, and former Liberal state pollie Graham Ingerson is still plugging away at the age of 78 representing retail clients such as Drakes Supermarkets and mining company Terramin Australia.
Mr Pyne’s client list includes big names such as the Adelaide Football Club, major Liberal party donor Sally Zou’s Aus Food Alliance, and high-profile builders and property owners such as the Hickinbotham Group, the Polites Group, and the Ginos Group.
My Pyne also took a job with consulting firm EY little more than a month after leaving federal parliament, to help grow its defence business. He has argued he is not breaching the federal Statement of Ministerial Standards, because he is providing “strategic advice”, not lobbying.
The standards state that for 18 months after leaving office former ministers must not “lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the Government … on any matters on which they have had official dealings as a minister”.
An investigation by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which was criticised by a subsequent Senate inquiry, found no breach of the standards.
Andrew Coombe, previously staffer for Premier Steven Marshall and former Liberal leader Isobel Redmond, has clients including BankSA, developer Cedar Woods, Optus and Detmold.
Former Labor Senator Nick Bolkus has long been a fixture on the state lobbying circuit, having previously been a part of top tier firm Bespoke Approach, which then also included former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer and Ian Smith, husband of former Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott-Despoja.
Mr Bolkus currently has just one client, Tristar Petroleum, which aims to search for gas in the state’s Far North, while Mr Downer has long moved on to other pursuits. Mr Smith client’s include Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, Medibank Private and Port Pirie smelter owner, Nyrstar.
The Grattan Institute has found that since 1990 more than one in four federal ministers have gone on to work for a lobbyist firm, peak body or special interest group.
