Time to end the lobbying protection racket |
Time to end the lobbying protection racket
February 22, 2026 — 5:00am
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When Michael Munger explained that there’s a point at which the first dollar companies spend on lobbying becomes more profitable than the last dollar they spend on the pursuit of honest profits, it was meant to be a warning about creeping crony capitalism, not a business plan. And yet Australian businesses have taken very seriously the US economist’s advice on how to capture a market. Now, as the government prepares its May budget, some are experiencing regret.
At the end of last year, advisory firm General Strategic posted a chart to LinkedIn that I can’t get out of my head. It shows the number of new lobbyist registrations since 2009. The chart draws on data from the official lobbying register, which everyone who wants to directly interact with politicians and their staff on behalf of a business interest must join.
I have to stress that these are new registrations only, so they’re in addition to lobbyists who were already registered. Hold tight. In 2009, under the Rudd government, there was only one new registration. But in 2010 there was a spike in registrations, with 60 lobbyists joining the register. New registrations then fell again for the rest of the Rudd/Gillard government and there were only about 10 a year added under Abbott and Turnbull from 2013 to 2015. That number remained low but started creeping up during the Turnbull/Morrison government from 2016 to 2018.
Under Morrison there was a steady rise – 34 in 2019, 40 in 2020, 44 in 2021. That jumped when Albanese was elected, with 99 registered in........