Labor’s overuse of external consultants is a ‘corruption risk’

A second lobbying firm has publicly lambasted the state’s loose regulations after reporting there’s nothing stopping lobbyists using government contracts for commercial gain to an integrity probe.

Corruption risks are being created by the Palaszczuk government’s overuse of consultants to develop public policy, an integrity probe has been told.

A submission by Labor-aligned, government-relations specialists Hawker Britton to the independent review of the Integrity Commissioner says there is nothing in current lobbying regulations stopping large accountancy firms “monetising their government contracts to provide advisory services to private clients for their own commercial gain”.

It says the public service should be used for this work, but they’re no longer capable of doing it after the Newman Government sacked the state’s best bureaucrats and they all walked into top private sector jobs.

Hawker Britton has become the second lobbying firm to publicly lambaste the state’s loose lobbying regulations after lobbying firm Anacta, run by Labor alumni Evan Moorhead and David Nelson, told the review “significant numbers” of lobbyists were skirting weak laws to operate in the shadows.

Kevin Yearbury will consider whether existing provisions are appropriate or effective in regulating contact between lobbyists and past and current government and opposition representatives.

Hawker Britton also calls for a tightening of the code of conduct to capture the whole government relations advisory sector, which it agrees “is ballooning with unregulated shadow consultants” who don’t officially register as lobbyists but are effectively lobbying governments.

They additionally call for greater rules around when advisory firms are contracted by government to blunt conflicts of interest and to ensure they can’t use that insider knowledge to advantage their clients.

That could include a firm documenting their clients with the Integrity Commissioner or signing a contract promising not to use insider information to instruct clients.

“While the retention of external consultants is required from time to time, the over reliance on external consultants for the development of public policy has created an exposure for the government if those firms retain their own private clients,” the submission says.

“Currently, other than Cabinet confidentiality agreements, there is nothing preventing an external consultant being engaged by government to perform a public policy development task and informing their own private commercial clients on government thinking, process and policy development.

“There is nothing preventing, nor any disclosure around, these firms further monetising their government contracts to provide advisory services to private clients for their own commercial gain.”

In his review, eminent former public servant Kevin Yearbury will consider whether existing provisions are appropriate or effective in regulating contact between lobbyists and past and current government and opposition representatives and “whether specific investigative powers are required to effectively regulate lobbying activities”.