Julie Bishop not a registered lobbyist when she arranged Greensill pitch to Mathias Cormann

Julie Bishop arranged for Lex Greensill to make a pitch to Mathias Cormann, despite not being a registered lobbyist.

Julie Bishop (left) and Lex Greensill. Pictures: File

Julie Bishop arranged a meeting for Lex Greensill to pitch his wages on demand service to former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, despite not being a registered lobbyist at the time, The Australian can reveal.

Ms Bishop, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, brokered the meeting on the sidelines of an Australian National University event at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year.

It comes as another Greensill adviser, former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, has been embroiled in a lobbying scandal involving Greensill.

At the Davos meeting, Mr Greensill hoped to roll out his wages on demand offering to more than 150,000 Commonwealth public servants, which the Department of Finance warned Mr Cormann was “economically similar to payday lending”.

Mr Cormann didn’t pursue the pitch and it wasn’t until almost four months later on April 14 that Ms Bishop registered her consultancy — Julie Bishop & Partners — on the Australian government’s lobbyist register.

A source familiar with Ms Bishop’s engagement at Greensill said her role was limited to providing strategic advice and not lobbying. Ms Bishop declined to comment.

At the time of the Davos meeting, Mr Greensill announced Ms Bishop as his new senior adviser “via her consulting firm Julie Bishop & Partners”.

Under Australia’s lobbyist code, contractors are not exempt from registering themselves as a lobbyist, unlike in-house employees. But contractors are exempted if the principal role is not lobbying government.

Former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. Picture: AFP

In a media release announcing her engagement at Greensill, Ms Bishop said: “Business, government and individuals can all benefit from greater efficiencies in the finance sector. Innovative solutions pioneered by Greensill offer great potential to transform relationships throughout the world’s complex supply chains.

“I look forward to working with Greensill to ensure such opportunities can be provided across developed and developing countries.”

In comments published in Nine newspapers last month, Ms Bishop clarified her role at the collapsed financier.

“I am not a director or member of the Greensill Capital board. Julie Bishop & Partners provides advisory and consultancy services to Greensill Capital.”

Under the lobbying code of conduct, a definition of a lobbyist includes “communications with a government representative”, adding that “includes oral, written and electronic communications”.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cormann told The Australian last July that “Ms Bishop asked the Minister to meet with Mr Greensill and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron in the margins of that (ANU) function” at Davos.

“Minister Cormann agreed to a request by Ms Bishop to meet with Greensill,” the spokeswoman said.

Former British PM David Cameron. Picture: Getty Images

But Mr Cormann did not follow up the meeting after a briefing note from the Department of Finance described the wages on demand offering as “economically similar to payday lending”, a description Mr Greensill has rejected and said the bureaucrat who wrote it “got wrong”.

The Australian understands Mr Cormann could not see the upside to the commonwealth in rolling out Mr Greensill’s scheme, which would have allowed public service employees to access their pay as it was earned, rather than wait until the end of the pay cycle.

The revelations come as Mr Cameron sent a series of texts to Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasurer, lobbying him to grant hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayer-funded loans to the company.

He contacted Jesse Norman, financial secretary to the Treasury, at the same time as he was trying to get access to Mr Sunak. The emergence of Cameron’s contact with Mr Norman raises further questions about the extent of the lobbying operation he pursued in Greensill’s interests.

Mr Cameron also went on a camping trip to lobby Mohammed bin Salman months after the Saudi crown prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It has also been claimed that Mr Cameron told friends that he stood to make $US60m from the listing of Greensill. A friend said he was “candid” about the windfall from his shareholdings after Greensill was valued at $US7bn.

Greensill dived into administration last month, with its Australian operations facing creditor claims of up to $4.8bn.