Liberal lobby shops have been dropped by dozens of clients since federal Labor won power

Michael Photios celebrates Scott Morrison leading the Coalition to victory in 2019. Picture: Hollie Adams

Lobbying firms aligned with the Liberal Party are seeing a mass exodus of clients since Labor won office in May, suggesting their provision of dark arts and persuasion, once so valuable during successive Coalition governments, are no longer regarded as useful in the Albanese era.

Reputable firms that worked nimbly to recruit trophy hires from the nation’s pool of Labor strategists, dirt-diggers, advisers and operatives – mainly to shore up a perception that they were capable of working with any administration – have still experienced staggering outflows from their client lists, suggesting these efforts were in vain.

Details of client deregistration, available for scrutiny on the lobbyists’ register, reveal that some organisations made their decision to cut ties with their external firms within days, and even hours, of the election swinging wildly in Labor’s favour on May 21.

That, in itself, raises a question over whether firms are adhering to the Lobbying Code of Conduct, whose language (admittedly a bit elastic) indicates that clients should remain on the books for three months post-disengagement.

Christopher Pyne has hung on to most of his clients after Labor’s election win. Picture: Ian Currie

While that might be open to interpretation, the timing of some deregistrations – immediately after the change of government – indicates the code may not have been strictly followed.

Worst hit was Barton Deakin, founded by former Liberal leader Peter Collins, chaired by former Liberal state director Grahame Morris and managed by ex-NSW Liberal MP Andrew Humpherson. More than 50 clients appear to have dropped the firm or defected since the election, among them Amazon (now in the arms of SEC Newgate), the Minderoo Foundation Trust, McDonald’s Australia and law firm Minter Ellison (now with Hawker Britton).

Red Bull Australia seems to have swiftly dumped Barton Deakin, having been deregistered on the Monday after the election. It was the same story for the Australian Film Institute, APA and Castlerock Property, a Melbourne-based fund manager.

But Barton Deakin was certainly not alone in its misfortune. Jolly Liberal svengali Michael Photios, chairman of PremierNational, saw a similarly high number of client exits despite recruiting Graham Richardson, the former Labor senator and Townsville restaurateur (now the subject of a messy legal proceeding), months out from the poll. Darrin Barnett, a former press adviser to Julia Gillard, similarly works for Photios but in a directorial capacity.

PremierNational deregistered 26 clients on May 25 – four days after the vote – among them the Australian Recording Industry Association, HelloWorld Travel Services, the Master Builders Association of NSW, Walker Corporation, OpenLearning Limited and Live Nation Australasia.

Former political adviser Grahame Morris and ex prime minister Scott Morrison.

Other long-term clients have left in the succeeding months, including the Climate Council of Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and CSR.

DPG Advisory, once a bastion of conservative strategy, made two notable hires in the months after the Morrison government’s loss.

The first was Chris Fry, a former staffer to Labor elder statesmen Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Gareth Evans.

“He is well connected to the current federal Labor government,” goes his DPG website bio.

The second was offbeat: Ben Oquist, who previously ran the Australia Institute (and is married to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young).

On staff by August, the Australia Institute was signed as a DPG client by January.

Alas, while still maintaining a roll of large organisations on its books (Rio Tinto, Salesforce, Wesfarmers, Coles and Facebook, among others) DPG’s pivot did little to halt the inevitable.

It has lost the Australian National University, Challenger, Kogan, NBC Universal, the Association of Superannuation Funds, Racing Australia, Strike Energy, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Newcastle Airport and the acting school, NIDA.

C|T Group (previously known as Crosby Textor), which seems to have more lobbyists than actual clients these days, picked up the Pharmacy Guild account from DPG but the Liberal pollsters have farewelled Caeserstone Australia (now with Hawker Britton), Daily Mail Australia and the Cape York Institute, all of whom had a change of heart about its services in the days after the election. Gone, too, are BHP, Airbus Australia and Accolade Wines.

Surprisingly, former Liberal defence minister Christopher Pyne seems to have weathered the storm rather well, his outfit Pyne and Partners losing just one client in recent months, the non-profit Teach for Australia. “We have found governments of all persuasions – state, territory and national – respond to anyone who they feel can add value. So that’s what we try to do and not waste their time flying kites,” Pyne said.

Mystery side hustle

Drew Bradford, a veteran of the National Australia Bank, quit his role as an EGM in March after more than a decade running the markets team.

In the months preceding that resignation, Margin Call affiliate David Ross learned of a Bradford side hustle with JellyC, a coin-and-token investment play that was co-founded by Bradford’s former Deutsche colleague Ashley Cooper.

Whether his involvement was ever declared with NAB officials remains unclear, and perhaps of no material importance to why he left. Regardless, no sooner was Bradford’s role with JellyC questioned some months ago than someone rushed to remove all references to him from the website and various social media platforms. Why so secretive?

Drew Bradford, who has departed NAB.

Gone, too, in that purge of information was an NFT mocked up of Bradford, in which he was drawn shirtless and speckled with a variety of tattoos that we’re certain are not actually inked on his person. This while he was still working as an EGM at the NAB.

So it’s no great surprise to see Bradford’s biography and photograph reinstated on the JellyC website in recent days, alongside an official title as its director of special operations.

Efforts were made to seek comment from Bradford, namely to establish why that flurry of deleting was so necessary last year – but also whether he has any tattoos.

As of deadline there was still no response.