Annastacia Palaszczuk admits blurring of lines in lobbying industry

Annastacia Palaszczuk says she will tighten political donor rules if needed as she defended her government’s links to a lobbying and consulting firm.

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk has admitted there is a “blurring” of lines in the ­lobbying industry, as she pledged to tighten state government rules if required.

On Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk defended her government’s links to lobbying and consulting firm Anacta Strategies after it was revealed her former deputy chief of staff Denise Spinks, who now works there as a consultant, was in charge of a ­contract with the taxpayer-owned CleanCo.

It came as it was revealed Anacta had donated $35,000 to the Labor Party in February – the same month it was awarded the contract and a day before Ms Spinks met with Energy Minister Mick de Brenni.

Ms Palaszczuk said former employees had to abide by ­integrity advice and that she had been told it wasn’t a business meeting.

Under the government’s post-employment rules, Ms Spinks cannot conduct business meetings with government representatives on matters she had official dealings with as a staffer in the 18 months after leaving her role.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Liam Kidston

Pointing to Kevin Yearbury’s review into the Integrity Commissioner’s functions, Ms Palaszczuk said that if lobbying regulations needed to be tightened then her government would do so.

“There is a blurring at the moment of people who are ­either working for in-house legal firms, for people who are government relations and these are issues that will be looked at in the context of that review,” she said. In 2016, Ms Palaszczuk rejected calls from a separate independent review that recommended the government tighten its rules so that “in-house” and industry lobbyists be required to record meetings with government officials.

However, a parliamentary inquiry at the time found ­“current lobbying regulations achieve the intent of ensuring transparency regarding parties seeking to influence government officials”.

Mr Yearbury, whose report is currently being considered by the Economics and Governance Committee, found that to expand the definition of a ­lobbyist would incur disproportionate costs “compared to the net overall result in terms of the transparency objective”.

Mr Yearbury recommended that ministers be required to provide greater information in their ministerial diaries and that the Opposition Leader’s diary also contain similar detail. Ms Palaszczuk refused to answer further questions around lobbying on Thursday, instead turning to Ash Barty’s bombshell retirement announcement and the recent floods before walking away from reporters.

Anacta Consulting Director David Nelson earlier this week said the firm had complied with the government’s post separation employment provisions at all times.