National Interest

With every political reporter in the country waiting to see when Julia Gillard will take tea with the governor-general and formalise the election campaign, other policy developments are not getting much attention.

So you might have missed the fact that the federal government this week took another small step towards its promise of greater political accountability. On Thursday Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig released a discussion paper suggesting new measures to ensure that lobbyist don't exert undue influence over our politicians.

It proposes bringing a wider range of lobbyists under the remit of the lobbyists register and code of conduct introduced two years ago, and it suggests doubling the amount of time that retiring government ministers have to wait before they set up shop in the influence industry.

But while the recommendations would give us more information about the 'who' in lobbying, that is who gets to meet government officials; they would reveal little about about the 'what', 'when' and 'how much' of the industry. In Australia there is no public record of meetings between lobbyists and government and nothing in the discussion paper would change that.

Guests

John Warhurst
Emeritus Professor with the Australian National University's School of Politics and International Relations and author of 'Behind Closed Doors', which looks at lobbying in Australia

Further Information

Australian Government Register of Lobbyists and Code of Conduct

Possible Reforms to the Lobbyist Code of Conduct and Register of Lobbyists

Presenter

Peter Mares

Producer

Erica Vowles

Radio National often provides links to external websites to complement program information. While producers have taken care with all selections, we can neither endorse nor take final responsibility for the content of those sites.