Power Brokers of Canberra’s Corridors: Most powerful political donors, lobbyists, influence groups
These are Australia’s biggest political donors, lobbyists and influence groups who have the ears of our country’s top leaders in Canberra. SEE THE FULL LIST
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Governments come and go but behind the scenes are players pulling the strings and wielding influence unseen by the public.
In 2019, there has been a seismic shift in the landscape of Australia’s power players, brought on by an explosive banking royal commission, a leadership spill, a shock federal election result and a foreign influence crackdown.
Today, News Corp shines a light on who is big behind the scenes and how they operate to influence our daily lives.
The Power Brokers list includes 100 of the country’s most influential people in business, defence, health, the public service, politics and a raft of other fields.
It includes billionaires or business figures with extensive political contacts and influence such as Australia’s richest man Anthony Pratt and Andrew Forrest.
It also includes Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s closest advisers, the lobbyists who represent powerful interest groups or corporations, the groups that wine and dine politicians with gifts or tickets to sporting events and some of the country’s biggest political donors.
The list was compiled by scouring politicians’ interest registers, the Australian Electoral Commission’s annual political donations disclosures, the lobbyist register and speaking to politicians, bureaucrats and Canberra watchers to compile the list.
Other individuals were selected for the influence they wield in other ways, such as former politicians, domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, AFL chief Gillon McLachlan or Donald Trump’s man in Canberra Arthur Culvahouse.
POLITICAL DONORS, LOBBYISTS, INFLUENCE GROUPS
Paula Dwyer
Paula Dwyer’s network is a who’s who of Australia’s corporate and political elite.
She is currently the chair of wagering giant Tabcorp, and sits on the board of a number of other powerful companies including food and beverage giant Lion and Allianz Australia.
Dwyer is also a non-executive director of ANZ bank, along with fellow director Ilana Atlas, former New Zealand prime minister John Key, former head of the Health department Jane Halston, and businessman David Gonski.
Tabcorp is one of the country’s biggest political donors, giving more than $100,000 to the Labor Party, more than $70,000 to the Liberals and more than $36,000 to the Nationals in 2017-18 alone.
As the company’s chair, Dwyer hosts events attended by some of the country’s most powerful people at the Melbourne Cup and other Spring Racing days each year.
Bill Shorten, Michael McCormack, Marise Payne, Mitch Fifield, Sam Dastyari and Greg Hunt are among more than a dozen MPs that accepted tickets to sporting events or hospitality from Tabcorp in the 45th Parliament.
The wagering giant also employs Govstrat as a lobbyist firm, whose other clients include Adani.
Govstrat is led by former Queensland Labor treasurer Damian Power, and its other consultants include former Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge and Ken Macpherson, a former chief of staff for Bill Shorten.
Dwyer was also the chair of Healthscope, which operates dozens of private hospitals in Australia, until a takeover bid by a Canadian company this year.
She was also previously a member of the ASIC External Advisory Panel, the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority and the Victorian Gaming Commission.
John Kirby
Richlister John Kirby is a significant political donor and is one of the leading figures at Australian film and theme park giant Village Roadshow.
The company, founded by Kirby’s father and run by his family, has been one of the country’s biggest political donors for years.
Individually, John and his wife Carolyn have given more than $87,000 to the Labor Party in the past few years, with the majority of that going to the party’s Victorian branch.
Village Roadshow, which is behind films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Ocean’s 8 and Happy Feet, has given millions to the country’s major political parties in the past 15 years.
It has also successfully lobbied the government for tougher laws to crackdown on online piracy.
John and his brother Robert Kirby have been feuding over the company’s direction in the past years as its market value dropped and the 2016 Dreamworld ride tragedy occurred.
The elder Kirby has reportedly been pushing for change, which occurred this year when the company announced in June that Clark Kirby, Robert’s son, would replace long-time chief executive Graham Burke in the top job from January 1, 2020. Robert will step down as chairman to be replaced by an independent non-executive chair. John, Robert and Burke will all remain on the board.
Dr Ven Tan
Dr Ven Tan heads up a Chinese community group which has wined and dined politicians, donated to political parties and facilitated trips to China.
The Sydney GP emerged as an influential figure in 2017 after being named chairman of the Australia China Economics, Trade & Culture Association.
ACETCA has donated thousands to the NSW Liberal and Labor parties in the past six years.
Anthony Albanese and federal Labor frontbencher Matt Thistlethwaite are just some of the politicians who have attended its events in recent years, while NSW Opposition leader Jodi McKay has been pictured at its offices.
NSW Liberal MP Jonathan O’Dea also travelled to China with the group in June, with ACETCA paying for his accommodation and some meals.
Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo was a patron of the group until recently, but ACETCA has distanced itself from him since his permanent residency was revoked earlier this year.
Huang’s influence has been diminished by the foreign influence scandal that ended Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s political career and is currently engulfing the NSW Labor party, but prior to that he had donated millions to the country’s major political parties.
Prominent Chinese influence expert Clive Hamilton has alleged the group has ‘close ties’ to the ruling Chinese Communist Party but Dr Tan has strongly denied this claim.
Fiona Simson
Fiona Simson was one of the first people Scott Morrison called the day after he became Prime Minister in 2018.
It’s an indication of how influential Simson is as the president of the National Farmers Federation, particularly with the country in the midst of a drought.
Simson became the first female president of the powerful farmers lobby group in November 2016.
She has been its public face and voice to government through major drought summits and calls to ban live sheep exports after shocking footage of sheep suffering on ships was published by animal rights activists last year.
Simson’s advocacy started with a role as a councillor in her local Liverpool Plains Shire, where she runs a farm with her husband and family.
Innes Willox
Innes Willox wore many hats — including diplomat, journalist and political staffer — before becoming one of Australia’s top business lobbyists.
As chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, Willox is now a powerful voice for crucial industries including manufacturing, construction, mining, engineering and defence.
He was a key proponent of Malcolm Turnbull’s corporate tax cuts and has pressured successive governments to lock down an energy policy that will lower power prices and ensure supply, including looking at nuclear power.
He has long-established network in Canberra from previously working for The Age as a political journalist in the press gallery and working as the chief of staff to Alexander Downer when he was foreign affairs minister.
Willox was also a diplomat from 2006 to 2008, serving as Australian Consul General to Los Angeles.
His head of government relations at the Ai Group, Tony Melville, was also formerly a senior diplomat posted to The Philippines, the head of DFAT’s media branch and a senior media adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating in the 1990s.
Jacinta Collins
When Malcolm Turnbull announced an overhaul of school funding in 2017, the backlash from the Catholic sector was swift and brutal.
It waged a sustained campaign against the Coalition accusing it of leaving Catholic schools with a $1.1 billion funding shortfall.
Turnbull — and later Scott Morrison — were forced to seek a peace deal with the Catholic sector or risk an electoral hit from hundreds of thousands of angry Catholic school parents.
Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham lost the education portfolio over the bitter stoush and it was new Education Minister Dan Tehan who eventually announced an extra $4.6 billion in funding for Catholic and non-government schools.
Former Labor frontbencher Jacinta Collins became the new face of the peak Catholic schools body, the National Catholic Education Commission, in February, just weeks after leaving politics.
It would have given the NCEC an even stronger connection to the Shorten Labor government — if it had won the election.
Geoff Parker
Geoff Parker is the top lobbyist for Australia’s $7 billion soft-drink and non-alcoholic beverages industry.
He has been instrumental in opposing a national sugar tax.
Under his leadership, the Australian Beverages Council has admitted to spending “vast amounts of resources” on lobbying against the tax, which various bodies including the Australian Medical Association have called for to tackle the nation’s obesity crisis.
Parker even wrote about having “strengthened” the Beverages Council’s “profile” with politicians in Canberra and state parliaments in its 2016 annual report.
When Parker unveiled an industry pledge to cut sugar in non-alcoholic drinks by 20 per cent by 2025 in June 2018, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt was standing beside him at the press conference in Canberra to publicly endorse the move.
The pledge — signed by Coke, Pepsi and other major companies — isn’t to reduce the amount of sugar in specific drinks. The companies have just agreed to put more low sugar and sugar-free drinks and “smaller container sizes” on the shelves, as well as tweaking the recipes of a few drinks.
Hunt called it a “historic” commitment and rejected suggestions by the media it was about warding off a sugar tax, while Parker said it had “nothing to do with a sugar tax”.
The Beverages Council also employs external lobbyist firm OPR agency, which includes Leon Beswick, previously an adviser to former health minister Michael Wooldridge and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, and Nino Tesoriero, a former ABC journalist who worked as a media adviser for Julia Gillard.
Stephen Ferguson
Stephen Ferguson is the head of the influential Australian Hotels Association.
The group spends tens of thousands of dollars on political donations and lobbying each year, giving broadly to the Liberals, Labor, Nationals, Queensland LNP, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, Katter’s Australia Party and the Australian Conservatives.
It also give alcohol or gifts to a broad range of individual MPs, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison who received four tickets to Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ concert from the AHA in November 2018.
The group also gifted alcohol to controversial senator Fraser Anning and other MPs in the 45th Parliament and provided Liberal Senator James Paterson tickets to the Melbourne Cup Birdcage in 2017.
As chief executive, Ferguson is the hotel industry’s voice to Canberra on issues including alcohol, gambling, tax and tourism policies.
The Tasmanian branch of the AHA alone gave $269,750 to the Tasmanian Liberals in 2017-18.
The National body gave $91,740 to Labor the same year and $38,625 to the federal Liberal Party.
In 2015-16, its donation to the federal Liberals was almost $200,000.
Cory Bernardi’s Australian conservatives received $10,000 in 2017-18.
Cameron Milner
Cameron Milner is head of a major lobbyist firm which has previously represented mining giant Adani.
He also has deep political connections with the Labor Party as the ALP’s former Queensland State Secretary and a veteran political strategist.
Milner was also ex-Labor leader Bill Shorten’s right hand man for a time as his chief of staff for nearly a year.
The Queenslander had previously helped deliver election wins for former Labor premier Peter Beattie in 2001 and 2004.
Now, he heads up lobbyist firm Next Level Strategic Services, which represented Adani for a number of years. Next Level’s current clients include Australian Super, contractor Broadspectrum, fruit and vegetable giant Costa Group, Gas Energy Australia, ITV and Ramsay Health Care.
Melanie Silva
Melanie Silva is the new boss of internet giant Google Australia.
She took over the reins last year when previous managing director Jason Pellegrino stepped down after almost a decade.
The promotion made her an influential figure in corporate Australia and the face of Google as it navigates a push for more government regulation.
The consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has just released its final report calling for the government to limit the market dominance of Facebook and Google and the federal government is also ramping up a crackdown on multinational tax avoidance.
Silva is supported in lobbying Canberra on behalf of Google by a raft of internal and external professional lobbyists.
One of them is leading lobbyist firm Newgate Communications, which employs former Bill Shorten adviser Steve Michelson.
Newgate also represents major organisations including Qantas, Australia Post, Amex and the Sydney Swans.
Google has also hired lobbyist firm TG Endeavour, which also represents companies including Telstra, Shell, Coca Cola and the Business Council of Australia.
Brendan Tegg, a former adviser to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is one of the firm’s lobbyists, along with Mark Brandon-Baker, a former adviser to John Howard and former lobbyist for Westpac, and Paul Chamberlin, a former adviser to multiple Nationals leaders. Former Labor senator and powerbroker Stephen Conroy is also chairman of the firm’s advisory board.
The internet giant’s in-house lobbyist is Sanjay Kumar, who was acting state director of the SA Liberal Party and a deputy campaign manager in NSW and an in-house lobbyist for Woolworths before joining Google.
Mia Garlick
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is the global face of social networking giant Facebook.
But in Australia, the company’s point woman is Mia Garlick.
Facebook snapped up Garlick out of a role in the Department of Communications in 2011, when Labor was still in power.
She had been a senior bureaucrat working in Canberra and Sydney, advising the then-Minister Stephen Conroy and the department secretary on policy regarding the digital economy.
Garlick is now the director of policy for Facebook in Australia and New Zealand and regularly works with government and other stakeholders.
In recent months, Facebook has faced pressure from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other world leaders to crackdown on extremist content and live streaming on its platform in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.
The company was also under pressure to take action on fake news and to prevent foreign interference during the election. It instituted some measures before the campaign began.
Stuart Irvine
Ask anyone on the street who Stuart Irvine is and you’ll probably get blank looks.
But the UK business expat is the man behind some of the nation’s most well-known brands including XXXX, James Boag, Tooheys, Emu Export, Just Juice, Berri, Mersey Valley and VitaSoy.
The brands are all operated by food and drink giant Lion Co, where Irvine has been the chief executive officer since 2012.
The company employs about 6700 people across Australia and New Zealand, and makes about $5 billion each year.
During Irvine’s tenure, Lion has been a significant political donor, contributing more than $600,000 in total to the Liberal, National and Labor Party coffers since 2013.
The company also often hosts senior or rising star MPs at sporting events such as the Melbourne Cup.
Julie Bishop, Bill Shorten, former Trade Minister Steve Ciobo and Michael McCormack were among the MPs to attend events as guests of Lion in the 45th Parliament.
Kate Callaghan
Kate Callaghan is the top in-house lobbyist for oil and gas giant Chevron.
The powerful multinational spends tens of thousands on political donations and lobbying in Australia every year.
It has also received significant government assistance, such as $60 million to develop a carbon capture project at its Gorgon gas plant in WA through the Low Emissions Technology Development fund.
Chevron Australia managing director Al Williams started as the company’s new top executive in Australia in January but Callaghan, a former Labor staffer and ex-diplomat, is its main voice to Canberra.
She also represents Chevron on the board of industry group the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association.
Callaghan was snapped up by Chevron in 2009 while Labor was still in power.
She had worked for Kevin Rudd as Opposition leader before he became Prime Minister and as the chief of staff for then-Foreign Affairs Minister Steven Smith.
She also had connections in the public service after working as a diplomat for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and Jakarta for seven years.
Chevron has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Liberal and Labor party coffers since 2013 and is also a big donor to the National Party.
It spent more than $566,000 in total on political donations in five years from 2013.
Chevron also hosts individual politicians on tours of its operations in WA, including Labor MPs Anne Aly, Glenn Sterle and Matt Keogh and Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey in the 45th Parliament.
Matthew Cossey
Matthew Cossey heads up CropLife Australia, a powerful lobby group representing agricultural product suppliers and herbicide and pesticide producers.
It has been outspoken in recent years to defend the weedkiller Roundup, also called glyphosate, as the chemical has been banned or limited in other countries including Vietnam and France.
CropLife has been a consistent political donor to Labor and the National Party in recent years, contributing almost $90,000 to Labor and more than $109,000 to the Nationals since 2014.
It also keeps in touch with individual MPs and sends them gifts such as wine, coffee cups or Valentine’s Day hampers. CropLife sent then-Agriculture Minister David Littleproud a 2014 Penfolds Shiraz valued at $350 in 2018.
Before he joined CropLife in 2012, Cossey was a political staffer for Labor in the late 1990s and a campaign strategist for the party until 2008.
Paul Everingham
Lobbyist Paul Everingham has deep connections to some of Australia’s most powerful political leaders.
As a former executive director of the Liberal Party in WA, he has strong ties to federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Attorney-General Christian Porter.
The trio were named by political journalist Niki Savva as some of the power players at a small private Liberal dinner in Perth where members speculated on a possible Scott Morrison prime ministership in early 2018.
But Everingham has solid connections with both sides of politics after running his own influential lobbying firm, GRA Everingham, which represented high profile clients including Aurizon, Huawei, Serco, Curtin University, Lend Lease, ConocoPhillips, Ramsay Health Care, and the WA Football Commission.
He also grew up around politics — his father was the first chief minister of the Northern Territory, a federal MP for the Northern Territory in the 1980s and was previously president of the Queensland Liberal Party.
Everingham is now an influential voice for the resources sector as the head of the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy.
Mark McCallum
Coal is a political flashpoint in Australia these days, with the major parties attempting to balance the need for action on climate change with the need for jobs and low power prices.
Veteran lobbyist Mark McCallum is the new face of Coal21, a Minerals Council of Australia aligned-company founded in 2006 by 26 of Australia’s black coal producers to promote lower emissions coal.
The group hosted a study tour to Japan for federal politicians in August last year to promote cleaner coal, which was attended by Nationals MP George Christensen, Labor MPs Milton Dick and Meryl Swanson, and Liberal MPs Jason Falinski and Craig Kelly.
McCallum was Shell’s in-house lobbyist for six years before joining Coal21, and before that was deputy chief executive at the peak oil and gas body, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.
He also worked at the Department of Resources in the late 1990s.
McCallum became chief executive of the group in December, at the same time as taking up a position at the MCA.
Brian Pontifex
Brian Pontifex was one of Australia’s top diplomatic representatives in Paris and was the chief of staff for former WA Premier Colin Barnett before joining Rio Tinto.
Pontifex now works as the mining giant’s chief government relations advisor, which involves meeting with MPs, ministers and other stakeholders in Canberra on its behalf.
The person who held that role before him, Dr John Kunkel, is now Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s chief of staff.
As Barnett’s former chief of staff, Pontifex would have a strong network of WA Liberal figures as well as other powerful stakeholders in the state.
From 2015 to January 2019, he also served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, one of DFAT’s peak diplomatic postings.
Jannette Cotterell
Jannette Cotterell is a veteran Canberra insider and one of the nation’s most sought-after lobbyists.
Her extensive list of clients includes the Business Council of Australia, eBay International, Catholic Health Australia, the Leukaemia Foundation, Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, and adoption awareness group Adopt Change, which she represents pro-bono.
She is also one of four lobbyists representing the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
Before launching her own firm — which represents more than 50 organisations — Cotterell worked for five years as a director of campaign strategy and polling company Crosby Textor.
The company has ties with the Liberal Party dating back to the Howard era, but Cotterell works closely with both sides of politics as managing director of lobbyist firm Executive Counsel Australia, which she founded in 2008.
Santo Santoro
Former Liberal Senator Santo Santoro is one of four lobbyists for the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
The former Howard Government Minister and one-time Liberal Party vice president shot into the spotlight this year when it emerged he had helped set up private meetings for Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo with Peter Dutton and Christopher Pyne in 2015.
Leaked recordings obtained by the media organisations revealed Santoro had boasted that, for a fee of at least $20,000, he could help clients access staff in Dutton’s office regarding their migration applications.
Several Chinese companies and Griffith University, as well as the Pharmacy Guild, still employ Santoro as a lobbyist.
He has been a long-time factional power player in Queensland’s LNP and remains influential within the party.
Eamonn Fitzpatrick
Veteran media strategist Eamonn Fitzpatrick — dubbed an “agent of infection” by political rivals — remains one of the Labor Party’s go-to figures for tough campaigns.
Fitzpatrick is currently working for prominent lobbyist firm Hawker Britton, which counts Amazon, Apple, Bankwest, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Australian Energy Council, CommBank, Bunnings and McDonalds among its extensive list of clients.
He was spotted in Canberra as recently the July sitting period at Hawker Britton drinks with Labor staffers at Public Bar in Manuka, a popular spot for political staffers and journalists.
Fitzpatrick has been a secret weapon for a number of Labor leaders and was dubbed the “agent of infection” and a dirt-digger by the Queensland LNP.
He was brought in as recently as last year to help Labor MP Susan Longman win a by-election triggered by her dual citizenship, and was previously hired to be a media strategist for Julia Gillard and former Queensland premier Anna Bligh.
Damian Power
Brisbane’s Lime Bikes might not be as controversial as the Adani coal mine but they do have one thing in common — they both employ influential Queensland lobbyist Damian Power.
Before Scott Morrison’s election win gave the Queensland government a wake-up call on public sentiment about Adani, Power’s lobbyist firm GovStrat had been working for the company for 18 months to secure final approvals for the controversial mine.
Power has ties with Queensland Labor as the party’s former treasurer.
His lobbying firm also employs influential figures across the political divide, including former Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge, who led the state’s National Party.
GovStrat’s other lobbyist include Ken Macpherson, a former chief of staff for Bill Shorten, and Jeff Popp, a former chief of staff to former deputy premier Jeff Seeney.
Tabcorp, Rio Tinto, Club’s Queensland, Lime Bikes and Star Entertainment are just some of GovStrat’s other high profile clients.
Grahame Morris
Barton Deakin is one of Australia’s most influential lobbying firms, representing corporate giants like Amazon, Atlassian and McDonald’s.
Its extensive list of clients also includes Bunnings, Citigroup, Fujitsu Australia, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Lendlease, Lottoland, Vodafone and QBE Insurance, among dozens more.
The firm has deep ties to the Liberal and National parties in NSW, Victoria, SA and federally.
It was founded by former NSW Liberal leader Peter Collins in 2010 and is now led by managing director Andrew Humpherson, a former NSW Liberal MP in the O’Farrell and Baird governments, and veteran political strategist Grahame Morris, who has been deputy federal director of the Liberal Party, state director in SA, an advisor to Andrew Peacock and Alexander Downer and a chief of Staff to John Howard.
Barton Deakin’s other lobbyists include former NSW National minister Katrina Hodgkinson, former Howard policy adviser Anthony Benscher, Matthew Hingerty, a former political staffer to Joe Hockey and an adviser to NSW Premier John Fahey, veteran Liberal political strategist John Griffin, who worked as senior private secretary to John Howard and John Hewson, and David Alexander, a former advisor to Peter Costello.
TAMMY CHAN
‘Big tobacco’ still has influence in Canberra despite both the Liberal and Labor parties refusing to take tobacco industry money.
Philip Morris, the company that sells Marlboro cigarettes, remains a big donor to the National Party and a number of minor parties.
It has given The Nationals more than $145,000 since 2012.
The tobacco giant also donated $115,140 to former Senator David Leyonhjelm’s Liberal Democrats from 2013 to 2018.
It gave more than $150,000 to the Liberals in just two years before Tony Abbott pulled the pin on the Liberal Party accepting donations from tobacco companies in 2013.
The company’s current public face in Australia is Tammy Chan.
Chan has worked for Philip Morris in some capacity for more than 20 years but took up the role as the company’s Melbourne-based managing director in 2018.
She is its spokeswoman for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Chan has been pushing for law change at a state and federal level to legalise vaping, which is the company’s new business strategy given the change in public attitudes to cigarette smoking.
The tobacco giant has also employed a string of lobbyists in Canberra. It’s current in-house lobbyist is former Liberal Party staffer Sarah Casey, who previously worked for federal Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and was a media officer for the Liberal Party’s Victorian branch.
Originally published as Power Brokers of Canberra’s Corridors: Most powerful political donors, lobbyists, influence groups