Thank you ALL for supporting this - it is much appreciated! It seems things will NOT change in OUR country until Australians say in their THOUSANDS 'Enough IS Enough!'
If you still think lobbying isn't really that much of an issue; then the following articles may give you more food for thought.
The Mandarin's George Rennie (in the article attached to this post) pointed out in September 2019:
"Recent jobs taken by former senior ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne have brought on ire of the Australian Senate, which is now concluding an inquiry into the matter.
The testimony before the inquiry has been extraordinary: not just for what was said, but for what wasn’t - Australia’s lobbying laws are almost totally ineffective.
The Senate’s reaction reflects a wider sense in the electorate that elected officials may be putting their own interests ahead of the nation’s. As a result, trust in government and its institutions has been falling.
Moreover, Bishop and Pyne’s example reflects an increasingly common problem, in which senior decision makers go on to lobby for the same organisations they once made decisions about. This problem — called the “revolving door” — is severely undermining efforts to regulate corruption and lobbying, and little attention has been paid to the matter by our major parties"
"Australia’s lobbing regulation broadly consists of two documents, the lobbying code and ministerial statement. Beyond this, the Criminal code prohibits political corruption.
The regulation requires that ex-ministers not lobby members of government, the public service or defence force on matters relating to their former portfolios; and can not take advantage of privileged information recently gained in their role as minister. This applies for 18 months after they have left their roles.
In spite of this, former foreign minister Bishop took a role at one of the government’s biggest private aid contractors, Palladium, and former defence minister Pyne took a role with consulting firm EY to help build its defence business.
When asked to about these roles, both suggested they were not breaching the lobbying code, as they would not lobby for their clients."
And maybe they are not LOBBYING directly FOR the next 18 months (only 18 MONTHS Australia!) BUT with all the KNOWLEDGE they do have of Government practices and processes are they really being PAID huge salaries for giving NO advice?
The AFR story on Christopher Pyne seems to indicate this is a VERY fine line!
The Fixer in a fix over EY move (afr.com)
The Mandarin's Rennie goes on to say:
"The philosophical basis for prohibiting a minister from taking positions like Bishop’s and Pyne’s rests on three basic problems: the potential for bias, unfair access to former colleagues or subordinates, and the insider information a decision-maker has gained from their former role.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that of bias, which Parkinson’s testimony effectively ignored. There is the potential for a decision-maker to know — or even expect — that they will be later employed by the same companies and individuals that benefit from their decisions.
There is no accusation here that any recent ministers have engaged in such a subtle form of corruption. But that is also the problem: it would be impossible to know if it had.
Our laws require an explicit quid pro quo arrangement (that is, an obvious bribe) to have existed for someone to be found in breach of them. Short of someone confessing to the matter, this is very hard to prove. The days of “brown bags of cash” are largely gone, but it’s worth thinking of how the idea of a well-paying job might be similarly corrupting.
This is why the necessary response to the problem of the revolving door is to prohibit it (sometimes for up to five years), and have an independent regulator enforce the lobbying regime."
Rennie's article was written in the CONTEXT that the SENATE had just PASSED Larissa Waters' National Integrity Commission Bill 2018 (No 2) which now although sent to the House of Representatives has been GAGGED TWICE in 2020 by the Government who refuses to allow it to be DEBATED much less PASSED!
He goes on to say: "This is important, as the prime minister’s department and attorney-general’s office have shown that they are unwilling to aggressively enforce the lobbying code. Since the code was adopted in 2008, there have been no recorded breaches, but this hardly reflects the absence of wrongdoing. Rather, as Parkinson inadvertently pointed out, the code is so narrowly worded that breaches are barely possible.
Beyond this, the question is what would happen if a genuine breach was discovered?
The answer is probably nothing. No part of the code sets out penalties. The most stringent punishment that could be dealt would be to deregister a lobbyist (even though many skirt this system altogether), or block a lobbyist’s access to decision-makers. Neither of these possible remedies has ever been used.
In other words, even if a national integrity commission is created, any lobbying laws it oversees would need to be dramatically improved." (full article is attached)
Those who have waded THIS far - will well understand WHY a STRONG Federal Integrity Commission with TEETH is NOT WANTED by MANY politicians in Australia!
New study reveals extent of Australian politicians, staffers becoming lobbyists
The Guardian's Knaus and Evershed in 2018 had already pointed out that the MAJORITY of Lobbyists are former political insiders
'In the family': majority of Australia's lobbyists are former political insiders
And in other investigative articles the same month how WEAK Australia's Lobbying Laws are:
Australia's lax lobbying regime the domain of party powerbrokers
And two former National Party powerbrokers who were in 2018 lobbying our LNP Politicians
Top Nationals pair hold senior roles at big-business lobby firms
And it's NOT just the LNP - although this is MUCH more likely currently BECAUSE we have a LNP Government in POWER and LNP past POLITICAL INSIDERS will have much more influence on CURRENT Government policy!
Selling Access: a who's who of politicians-turned-lobbyists (crikey.com.au)
Who's in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics - Grattan Institute
Do Australians KNOW that Opposition leader Bill Shorten's appointed chief of staff Cameron Milner is the owner of a lobbying firm Milner Strategic Services and Next Level Holdings - a lobbying firm that has been employed by Adani, proponents of the Carmichael mine?
Certainly EXPLAINS his abysmal Environmental Campaigning during the last election - saying ONE thing to Qld miners and ANOTHER to Victorians!
And YES! Federal Politicians MUST publish their meeting DIARIES as State Politicians do!
It's not JUST Politicians that should be covered by a FIVE-YEAR Lobbying ban!
Not ALL lobbying is 'bad' - I am sure Australians don't see ACOSS and religious groups lobbying for VOICELESS poorer Australians as an issue - ESPECIALLY as the Australian PEOPLE'S VOICES are actually DROWNED out by MONEY & INFLUENCE - and there are many ex-politicians who go into these roles which I as an everyday Australian particularly ADMIRE
In 2009 Eureka Street's John Warhurst named some past big-name Politicians on BOTH sides of Politics who have opted for Educational and Charity roles rather than getting HUGE money from Business Groups
Former politicians make incestuous lobbyists (eurekastreet.com.au)
To those of you who have doggedly ploughed through all of this I say 'Thank you!' and ask you if any particular article resonates with you - or you think might resonate with a friend or family member - please do not hesitate to share with friends and family by SM, Email OR SMS..
I will do another update in a day or two about the VERY insidious Fossil Fuel Industry which as can be seen by PM Morrison's embarrassing (for Australia) 'speech' to the recent Climate Summit - has completely CAPTURED this current Government in its web!
And is hell-bent on dividing Australians!
Lastly some more articles if you are interested!
Downer and Costello's murky world of political lobbying (eurekastreet.com.au)
Corporate lobbying a billion dollar business - Michael West
BCA investigation: power of the business lobby in Australia - Michael West
The gifts that buy political access in Australia
Lobbyland. Fixing corruption risks in lobbying - Pearls and Irritations (johnmenadue.com)
Julie Bishop lobbying for L'Oréal (afr.com)
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/what-did-julie-bishop-do-for-greensill-capital