Palaszczuk won’t comment on lobbying until integrity report despite ‘blurring’ of lines

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is refusing to comment on whether the state’s lobbying laws need a reform until the long-awaited final report into her government’s integrity by Professor Peter Coaldrake.

Annastacia Palaszczuk says she is waiting for Professor Peter Coaldrake’s final report into her government’s integrity before considering whether lobbying rules need to be tightened.

The Premier has previously said there was a “blurring” of lines in the industry and that if regulations need to be altered than they would be.

“But we’re still waiting on Peter Coaldrake’s report,” she said on Tuesday.

“I want to see if he makes any comments about that first, and that report is due, I think from memory at the end of this month.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Tara Croser

Ms Palaszczuk in March pointed to Kevin Yearbury’s review into the Integrity Commissioner’s functions when she said there was 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.”

But when responding to that review last week, parliamentary committee members dismissed calls for the definition of lobbyist to be widened despite a range of stakeholders, including the Crime and Corruption Commission, suggesting it should happen.

“I think there is a blurring of some of those roles and it’s something that my department is giving some consideration to as well and anything that we can do to strengthen the reporting arrangements, so we’re looking at what’s happening in other states as well,” the Premier said on Tuesday.