Lobbyist donations climb more than 500 per cent over two decades

Lobbyists and industry groups have ramped up their payments to the major political parties by more than 500 per cent over two decades, extending their influence as a federal inquiry considers stricter rules on their conduct.

The groups paid $2.6 million to the main parties last year and are tipped to increase their support in the year ahead, with a long-term study showing a spike in their contributions before an election.

Former judge Anthony Whealy.Credit: Peter Rae

The findings are likely to sharpen a political dispute over the federal regime that is meant to reveal who is lobbying federal ministers, as experts and academics slam the scheme for sparing the wealthiest donors from any scrutiny.

The health and hotels sectors dominate the donations, with hotel groups spending $14.6 million over two decades and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia spending $6.6 million, while Medicines Australia spent $2.6 million.

The findings by the Centre for Public Integrity, a not-for-profit group set up by former judges and corruption prosecutors, are part of a new submission that says the industry groups and corporate executives should lose their exemption from the lobbying rules.

“The unregulated federal lobbying system is a disaster for democratic principles,” said former NSW Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy KC, the chair of the centre.

“Coupled with our lax donation laws, it has transformed the corridors of Parliament House into a virtual den of thieves. True access is available only to big money.”

The federal scheme requires lobbyists to disclose their names and clients on a public register that is run by the Attorney-General’s Department, but it only applies to lobbying firms and exempts industry associations and “in-house” lobbyists who work for big companies.

A Senate committee has launched an inquiry into the scheme, and plans to hold public hearings to consider calls to: scrap the exemptions, require lobbyists to reveal who they meet, and disclose the names of politicians who approve applications for lobbyists who gain special passes to enter Parliament House.

The Centre for Public Integrity found that payments to political parties from lobbyists – ranging from small firms to industry associations – were worth $43.5 million from 1999 to 2023, according to the centre’s database of donations data from the Australian Electoral Commission.

“Outside of election years, lobbyist donations have been substantially increasing over the past 25 years, with the value of donations growing from $400,315 in 1998-99 to $2,624,135 in 2022-23. This amounts to an increase in real terms of 555 per cent,” the centre said.

“In more recent years there have been large increases leading up to elections, with donations increasing in value from $2,818,026 in 2017-18 to $5,862,627 in 2018-19, and from $2,721,036 in 2020-21 to $3,771,544 in 2021-22.”

The results have been included in the centre’s formal submission to the Senate inquiry after earlier submissions from University of Sydney law professor Anne Twomey, Monash University expert Yee-Fui Ng and the not-for-profit Grattan Institute calling for the exemptions to end.

Rather than looking only at donations from small lobbying firms included on the federal register, the Centre for Public Integrity included payments to parties from industry associations including the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Banking Association, the Insurance Council of Australia and others.

The lobbying firm that contributed the most, Hawker Britton, paid $1.4 million to the Labor Party from 1999 to 2023.

Run by Simon Banks, a former chief of staff to several Labor leaders, the firm is known as a Labor-aligned group, while a related company, Barton Deakin, has lobbyists with Liberal Party backgrounds. Both are owned by global marketing company WPP.

Banks said the payments disclosed at the Australian Electoral Commission included fees to attend events and sponsorship money for Labor conferences because the firm did not make donations to the party.

Medicines Australia chief Liz de Somer said the group was a not-for-profit association that supported pharmaceutical companies and was not a lobby group under the current definition in the lobbyist code.

“As experts in access to medicines matters, we take a bipartisan approach to donations by participating in business programs run by political parties to gain policy insights,” she said.

The Property Council made significant contributions over the past two decades, but its board decided in 2016 to stop making donations. The electoral commission files show the council has not recorded donations since that year.

Melbourne Law School professor Joo-Cheong Tham, a director of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the lobbyist regime should include more of the people who influence decisions.

“The porous regulation of federal lobbying has enabled lobbyists to operate in secrecy and secure unfair access through substantial political donations,” he said.

“There needs to be statutory regulation of federal lobbying based on comprehensive scope, transparency of lobbying meetings – particularly with meetings with ministers – and a robust enforcement regime.”

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