David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'm conscious that there are a few minutes left. Thank you for the government's response. Being fairly new to all of this, I've been blown away at how loose the lobbying code is. When you talk to Australians about the fact that the government relations team from Qantas are not lobbyists—in fact, they get their sponsored passes from the infrastructure minister, who makes decisions about Qantas. They've had sponsored passes from her and from the previous infrastructure minister. When you talk about the government relations team from ANZ bank, everyone would think they're probably lobbyists. Wrong. They're in-house lobbyists. Just get a sponsored pass from a parliamentarian and away you go! The master grocers association sounds like a lobby group. Wrong. Sponsored passes and you're in! The Pharmacy Guild? Nope. Just get a sponsored pass and away you go!

There are so many loopholes when it comes to lobbyists—firstly, in terms of the definition of a 'lobbyist', which, as I hear from Australians, is outrageous, and, secondly, in terms of this register. The worst punishment is a six-month holiday from lobbying; you can't lobby for six months. It's a total joke. Most people think that we'd be ahead of the US when it comes to lobbying. We're miles behind. In the UK and the US, there are civil, sometimes criminal, penalties for grievous contraventions of their lobbyist codes of conduct. Here, it is a six-month holiday. It's not good enough.

As much as the government wants to say that everything is fine, Australians want more confidence in our system. I don't understand why the government that promised so much when it comes to transparency and this new dispensation are happy just to sit on their hands and not do anything and vote with the coalition against the crossbench. The crossbench are trying to push you on transparency—simple transparency measures that will improve our democracy and that will remove some of these perceived, and potentially real, conflicts of interest that Australians see. I thank the Senate for this opportunity.