Australian Greens Additional Comments

1.1For many years, the Greens have championed lobbying reforms to make sure that politicians work for the public not vested interests. We welcome the Committee recommendations but believe that more needs to be done to address the secrecy around lobbyists influencing government decisions.

1.2The Greens support the proposed independent review of the Lobbying Code of Conduct. We note that any consideration of an expanded definition of a lobbyist must explicitly include in-house lobbyists, who are not currently captured in the official definition. An expanded definition of a lobbyist must recognise the intent of lobbying, which is to influence the decision-making of parliamentarians, irrespective of who does it. The review should also consider strong penalties for breaching the Lobbying Code of Conduct including a ban from future meetings within the parliamentary precinct, and measures for greater transparency.

1.3We welcome the recommendation to improve regulatory interoperability between the Department of Parliamentary Services and the administrator of the Lobbying Code of Conduct. In the interest of effective regulation of lobbyists we believe there is also a need to introduce measures for greater transparency of sponsored passholders.

1.4We are disappointed that the Committee did not recommend requiring Ministers to publish meeting diaries. This already happens in many State parliaments and voters should be able to expect the same level of transparency federally.

1.5More broadly, the Greens would like to see the cooling off period for former Ministers and senior staff becoming lobbyists and meeting with current Ministers and Shadow Ministers extended from 18 months to 5 years. Former Ministers and their staff should not be entitled to lobby their colleagues for the benefit of harmful industries.

1.6It’s time to restore trust in our democracy by increasing transparency, shining a light on who is meeting who, and stopping the revolving door giving donors, former politicians and industry mates lucrative perks.

Senator Larissa Waters

Australian Greens spokesperson on Democracy

Senator for Queensland