For more than a week politicians have been peppered with enquiries about their dealings with Qantas and Virgin.

In my previous career as a paediatric neurologist and medical researcher I had lounge memberships by virtue of many hours in planes travelling to conferences. When I was elected in 2022, I accepted membership of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and Virgin’s Beyond club. It seemed like they came with the job. I knew I’d be travelling a lot, and they’d give good opportunities to catch ministers on issues and to work while in transit.

Those things were true. However, once I started working in Canberra, I became aware of the insidious nature of lobbying activities in Parliament House. Every sitting day, almost 2,000 lobbyists are in the house – 10 for every member of the house and the Senate. Most are not on the lobbyists’ register – they don’t have to be, because the register is........

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