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The revolving door between public office and the multibillion-dollar lobbying industry thrives on opacity. What little we do learn about it, meanwhile, generally comes from the attorney-general’s lobbyist register, hosted on one of the most poorly designed websites on the internet.
So our eyes lit up when we discovered Senator David Pocock had created his very own “Parliamentary Pass Register” to shed just a little more light on which MPs have sponsored lobbyists to walk freely through the halls of parliament.
Making our way down the register, which Pocock compiled through a mix of voluntary disclosures and responses to Senate questions on notice, made for some fun reading.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth is listed as the sponsor of a lobbying pass for her former deputy chief of staff and flack, Lanai Scarr, now head of government relations (read: lobbyist) at Telstra. Rishworth didn’t respond to a request for comment on the pass sponsorship.
The rest of the Telstra team, at least as far as we can tell, had their passes sponsored by former communications minister Michelle Rowland, who is now attorney-general. Rowland signed off on passes for Telstra CEO Vicki Brady, the telco’s general counsel Lyndall Stoyles, and Cecelia Burgman, a public affairs exec at the company, according to Pocock’s register.
Rowland also signed off on a pass for News Corp Australia’s policy chief Georgia-Kate Schubert for good measure. Rowland didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Then there’s Rowland’s opposite number, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash, who was the sponsor of a pass for Tom Fardoulys, a public policy manager and the token Tory at TikTok Australia. (Wonder how the Coalition’s resident China hawk Senator James Paterson feels about that?) Cash didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But it was teal MP Allegra Spender who caught our eye for her generosity. It turns out the member for Wentworth has sponsored eight of these passes, including one for none other than the castle-dwelling billionaire tech lobbyist Scott Farquhar. At least she disclosed them voluntarily, we guess. Spender didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Reached by CBD on Monday, Pocock said he created the register as a transparency measure, and he’s had a bit of pushback from Labor, the Liberals, the Greens … and the gas industry, refusing to answer questions. He said it’s an issue he thinks was turbocharged by the Qantas inquiry, where it turned out the minister making decisions affecting Qantas, Transport Minister Catherine King, was the sponsor of at least one of the company’s parliamentary passes.
“I think everyone knows that we have a lobbying system that is not up to scratch here in Australia,” Pocock told CBD.
“But I was shocked after being elected as a senator to learn just how loose it was, and this system of sponsored passes, where it’s basically this ability just to give anyone a sponsored pass, and they have an access-all-areas pass, and no one knows who they are, who gave them the pass, who they’re here to represent.”
Anzellotti’s corflute conundrum
It was only a little over a week ago that NSW Premier Chris Minns announced Elaina Anzellotti as NSW Labor’s new candidate for his neighbouring seat of Oatley, which has been held by Liberal MP Mark Coure for more than a decade.
But it sounds like Anzellotti doesn’t think Coure has been doing that bad a job. How else to explain the Coure corflute we hear was affixed to a pole outside her home at the last NSW state election?
Anzellotti didn’t pick up the phone when CBD tried reaching her about the chatter on Sunday, nor did the candidate respond to a text message asking about the corflute, when she joined the Labor Party, and whether she voted Liberal at the last election.
In a statement later on, Anzellotti furnished us with some party messaging but would not be drawn on the corflute or her voting record.
“Across St George, many Liberal voters are turning away because the Liberals have lost touch with our community, including people within my own family,” Anzellotti told CBD in a statement.
“After years of privatisation, wage freezes and neglect of essential services, Chris Minns is leading a government focused on delivering what communities like ours actually need and I am proud to be running as part of his team that are delivering better schools, hospitals and roads while supporting family budgets in this difficult time.”
After receiving this Labor marketing material, a person close to Anzellotti told us the corflute was on a pole outside, suggesting it was not actually on her property, and also pointed out that both the candidate and her husband handed out for Labor on polling booths.
We can only guess the pole will be more closely monitored heading into next year’s election.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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