Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion, and I'm pleased to again support the essential measures introduced in the member for Kooyong's Lobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill. I'm proud to stand with a group of crossbench parliamentarians who continue to fight so hard to reflect the wishes of their communities to strive for better transparency, greater integrity and more accountability in politics.

Part of integrity and accountability is understanding who is influencing our top decision-makers. We should know which lobbyists have access to ministers and cabinet. Currently, Australia lags behind our counterparts in Canada, in the UK and in the US in the transparency and accountability of lobbying activity. In each of those countries there is a legislated lobbying regime with clear reporting obligations arising from lobbying activities. Currently, in Australia's federal parliament, we only have an administrative system governed by the Lobbying Code of Conduct and overseen by the Attorney-General's Department. There are no meaningful consequences for breaching the federal code of conduct. The code of conduct applies only to professional lobbyists acting on behalf of third-party clients. This means lobbying activity that's undertaken in-house by businesses and industry bodies isn't included. In-house lobbyists are able to conduct invisible activity without regulation or oversight. The Grattan Institute has shown that highly regulated businesses have the most meetings with senior politicians, make the most use of commercial lobbyists and are disproportionately large political donors. I wonder why!

Australians see the impact of this everywhere. Take the issue of online gambling reform. The government asked a parliamentary committee to look at what needs to be done. A multipartisan committee led by the late member for Dunkley came up with 31 unanimous recommendations, which were handed to the government. Then it appears the lobbying began—from gambling companies, from sporting codes and from media companies.

Thanks to our also-threatened FOI process, we know that in the first six months the minister had no fewer than 66 meetings on the issue, almost universally with lobbyists against significant reform. We know the gambling industry peak body is taking every opportunity to rub shoulders with politicians, including at games organised at Parliament House by the Australian Parliamentary Sports Club, a registered lobby group, which kicked out sportsman and senator David Pocock for drawing attention to the 'ick' factor.

The hidden lobbying is gross, and Australians hate it. Transparency about the lobbying that goes on in this building is the very least the government should do in an effort to rebuild declining trust. If the government has nothing to hide, there should be no problem with greater transparency. I commend this bill to the House as another effort of the crossbench to pursue greater transparency.

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