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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum, and I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

It is my privilege to introduce theLobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill 2025into the Senate.

In doing so, I would like to acknowledge Dr Monique Ryan MP, the independent Member for Kooyong, who drafted an earlier version of this Bill and introduced it into the House of Representatives on 18 November 2024.

This Bill presents an opportunity for the major parties to help restore faith in our political system; to introduce regulations that will give Australians greater confidence that laws and policies are being made to benefit the public interest, not vested interests.

I have been shocked to see the influence that lobbyists can have on the trajectory of public decision-making, and how inadequate the checks and balances are to ensure that these interactions are properly scrutinised.

Lobbying is a legitimate practice. It is a way for various interest groups, such as those advocating for investment in cancer screening, to advocate for investment and attention by Government decision-makers. If lobbying is performed transparently and ethically, it can assist governments—and the Parliament—to identify gaps and ultimately craft policies that benefit Australians.

However, without any guardrails or transparency, there is no counterbalance to ensure that policies don't favour particular groups at the expense of the public interest. Worse still, when lobbying is performed out of sight, as is so often the case now, it erodes trust in our political system, leaving Australians feeling like the very people they elect to serve them are serving the interests of those with enough money to hire people to walk the halls of Parliament.

I have seen the real consequences of this; of Australians who feel little more than apathy toward our political system, who feel there is no point in engaging with politics because their voice will never be as loud as those who can afford to employ a lobbyist or attend a fundraising dinner.

This is a terrible outcome for our democracy and something we need to urgently repair. Transparency can be the antidote.

Australia's weak lobbying laws

As it stands, the rules that govern the conduct of lobbyists in this building and their interactions with Government decision-makers are so weak that they might not as well exist.

Currently, the only infrastructure we have to ensure integrity around lobbying activities is a largely voluntary Code of Conduct applying to people who register on the Lobbyist Register.

The first issue is that the obligation to register doesn't apply to the vast majority of lobbyists that come to Canberra each sitting fortnight.

The Lobbying Code of Conduct (the Code) applies only to third-party lobbyists, that is, professionals who lobby on behalf of other companies or interest groups. This means that people who work in-house as "Government relations advisers" for, say, Qantas, the Minerals Council or Santos, are not captured by the Code and don't have to abide by any formal code of ethics.

As Dr Ryan said in the House of Representatives: "So it applies only to 20 per cent of the lobbyists roaming our corridors, knocking on our doors, seeking to influence our decisions. The other 80 per centwho knows?"

The second issue is that the obligation to register isn't really an obligation. There is nothing that mandates that lobbyists register in the first place—and no penalty if they lobby while not on the register.

The breaches are also woefully inadequate. For even the most serious of breaches, for example, if a lobbyist were to lie or threaten a Government representative, the main sanction the Government can apply is a three-month break from lobbying.

Finally, while there may be some transparency around who lobbyists are, there is no transparency about who they are meeting with in the Government and what they are meeting about.

The current Code and Register amount to little more than window dressing; a nod to integrity without actually doing anything to promote integrity or transparency in Government decision-making.

The reforms introduced in this Bill

This Bill introduces several critical reforms to strengthen our lobbying laws and enhance transparency.

Firstly, it expands the definition of lobbyists to capture in-house lobbyists, industry associations and consultants who have direct access to decision makers, ensuring that everyone who lobbies the Government is held to a code of ethics and can be penalised for breaches.

The Bill also legislates the Lobbying Code of Conduct and introduces stronger penalties for breaches, so that it is no longer a voluntary code with no teeth.

It will require lobbyists to submit online quarterly returns, so the Australian public can see who they have been meeting with, for how long, where and why. At the same time, it establishes a requirement for ministers to publicly disclose their diaries, so the Australian public can compare, cross-check and verify that each party is disclosing accurate information.

The Australian public has a right to know whether key policy decisions are being shaped by the voices of ordinary Australians or by a select group of lobbyists with privileged access. Making ministerial diaries public would shine a light on these interactions and ensure that the Government remains accountable to the people it serves.

It provides the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner with the authority to oversee lobbying activities and investigate breaches of the Code.

Finally, but I believe most importantly, the Bill will prohibit ministers and their senior staff from moving into plum lobbying gigs after they cease employment in Government for a period of three years.

This revolving door between Government and industry is toxic to good governance. When ministers and staff leave public office, they should not be able to use their insider knowledge for personal gain or the commercial benefit of their new employer—and they shouldn't be making decisions prior to leaving office which may advance their employer-to-be.

Almost every resources minister we have had in recent memory has left the Government to work in the resources sector, which may go some way to explaining why Australia receives a dud deal on the export of its gas. It's notable that at least one former communications minister, responsible for regulating online gambling, moved onto work for the online gambling industry's peak body after leaving Government.

Critics of reform will argue that this Bill would place an unnecessary burden on Government officials and businesses engaging with policy-makers. However, transparency is not a burden—it is a fundamental obligation of any democratic government. Ultimately, compliance with a legislated Code is a small price to pay if more Australians feel they can trust that their Government is making decisions in the public interest.

Australia is lagging behind other democracies when it comes to lobbying transparency. Countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have far stricter regulations, including real-time public reporting of lobbying activities and independent regulators that actively enforce the rules. We should not settle for a system that is weaker than those of our democratic peers.

The need for reform is not new. Calls to strengthen lobbying laws have been made repeatedly, yet successive governments have failed to take meaningful action.

As I outlined in my dissenting report to the Senate inquiry into lobbyist access to Parliament House: "The response to this inquiry shouldn't be another inquiry, it should be real action to fix a broken system sitting at the heart of our democracy".

We cannot allow inertia to continue. Australians deserve a system where policy decisions are made in the open, where the public can see who is meeting with their representatives, and where Government officials are held to the highest standards of integrity.

This Bill provides an infrastructure that allows Australians to scrutinise lobbying activities and decide for themselves whether lobbying activities are having too great an influence over the formation of our national policies.

This Bill would allow Australians to look and see for themselves, in near real-time, at the actions of lobbyists. I urge my fellow Senators to support this legislation and take decisive action to reform our lobbying laws. The Australian people deserve nothing less.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.