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Lobbying rules and Stuart Robert in spotlight
The Attorney General’s Department is giving “active consideration” to a company connected to former Coalition minister Stuart Robert which was not registered on the federal lobbyists list.
Greens senator Larissa Waters, questioning the department at Senate estimates on Tuesday, slammed what she called “farcical” rules around the lobbying register.
The Nine newspapers reported in November that Robert had given advice to consulting firm Synergy360 and helped them secure corporate clients. Robert denied wrongdoing or any conflict of interest, and the newspapers did not suggest Robert was paid for his advice.
Waters asked the department about its investigation into the company. Deputy secretary Simon Newnham said Synergy360 was not listed on the register but there was “an active consideration of that matter” by the department, which had requested information from the company:
We will continue to analyse and assess that information as it’s received and take that into account before determining what further steps are necessary.
He said the department had written to the company on 25 November 2022, and received a call in response on the hotline that same day; then the department wrote to the company again on 7 February.
Asked by Waters if the department had received a “substantive” response, Newnham responded: “To this point, we have not.” He noted their second approach had been only last week.
Waters went on to ask separate questions about former Labor powerbroker and lobbyist Graham Richardson, querying the department about media reports that he had begun work with a lobbying firm in March 2022 but had only registered as a lobbyist in November 2022.
Parker Reeve, an acting assistant secretary in the department, said he understood there had been a “delay” in that registration process and that the department had engaged with Richardson over his registration obligations but asked to take specific questions on notice.
Waters then asked the department about what she called a “loophole” that in-house lobbyists (or those working directly for a company) did not need to register publicly while those engaged as third-party or external lobbyists did need to. She called this a “farcical” exemption.
Newnham said the department engaged with lobbyists and companies through providing fact sheets, responding to inquiries, taking questions from current or potential lobbyists and monitoring information in the public realm about whether further action was needed.
Reeve said that included regularly cross checking the lobbying code against the foreign interference transparency scheme, plus analysing media activity and reporting that alleges lobbying activities. The department can engage with lobbyists or potential lobbyists proactively, and investigate potential unregistered lobbying.
The department said it had conducted 10 investigations in the 2022 calendar year. These could lead to a request or recommendation that a person register themselves, and potentially other action such as deregistering a lobbyist or barring them from such activity in future.