Opinion: What Qld’s integrity report means for Anthony Albanese

There is one Queensland export heading towards Canberra that might leave something of a sour taste, writes Peter Gleeson.

Queensland is rightly famous for exporting many sweet things to the southern states – bananas, pineapples, sugar, rugby league skills ...

All right, NSW might disagree on the last one.

But there is one export heading towards Canberra that might leave something of a sour taste, even worse than a NSW fan after another Maroons victory.

The most successful political lobbying firm in Queensland, Anacta Strategies, is on its way to Canberra, announcing it was opening there within a day of Anthony Albanese winning office.

One of Anacta’s directors, David Nelson, worked on the Labor campaign at Sydney headquarters, as did another registered lobbyist Eamonn Fitzpatrick.

Anacta’s blurb on its website says it is a “specialist strategy and government relations firm combining decades of industry experience with unique insights into the government, regulatory and business sectors’’.

And Anacta founder Evan Moorhead’s role in the 2020 Queensland Labor state election campaign has been examined by Professor Peter Coaldrake in his four-month review into the culture and dysfunctionality of the Queensland public service.

Prof Coaldrake’s review, Let The Sunshine In, stated it was not appropriate for Mr Moorhead to be a central part of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s 2020 re-election campaign team.

But, while there are no suggestions Mr Moorhead or any of his colleagues have engaged in any wrongdoing, Prof Coaldrake hit the problem of perception on the head: “This can leave the public sceptical about even the strongest protections against conflict.”

Prof Coaldrake recommended that lobbying regulation be strengthened and an explicit prohibition of lobbyists “dual hatting’’’ as political campaigners.

He also believed a ban on donations from registered lobbyists to any political party was appropriate.

“The appearance of guiding a political party to office one week and then advocating a client’s case for a government or council decision a few weeks later, naturally raises suspicion which cannot be remedied by a promise to impose ‘Chinese Walls’,’’ he wrote.

“Suspicions about ‘dual hats’ may be heightened if subsequent government decisions favour clients of the firms engaged to run election campaigns.’’

This week Ms Palaszczuk said she “will accept all of his recommendations ... lock, stock and barrel”.

The big question for Australia is how will federal Labor ministers and staffers ensure that what has played out in Brisbane over the past seven years does not reoccur in Canberra?