风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
游说祸害
https://johnmenadue.com/the-lobbying-scourge/
作者：约翰·梅纳杜 2024 年 4 月 12 日
没有游说者超出此标志
游说是为了赢得政治利益，从而腐蚀市场并阻止公开竞争。 图片：维基
游说改革的主要障碍是，对于议员、其工作人员和高级官员来说，游说在他们离开议会、军队或公共服务部门时提供了非常丰厚的收入。 因此他们拒绝对游说祸害采取行动。
向参议院财政和公共行政参考委员会提交的有关游说的意见书，2024 年 2 月 8 日。
对澳大利亚游说管理方式的监管是比国家诚信委员会更重要的问题。
化石燃料行业对世界各国政府的游说是我们现在面临的气候紧急情况的一个主要原因。 我们的高级军官和军火工业之间存在着一道旋转门，军火走私者为他们提供了丰厚的退休工作。
主要政党已表现出对游说祸害不感兴趣。 说客队伍中充满了前部长、前政治工作人员和前党官员。
各政党迫切需要和机会合作，强制立法，对游说者进行有效监管，使公众利益始终至高无上
人们对政府和议会失去信任的一个主要原因是，强大的特殊利益集团及其游说者已经开始主导公共辩论，并使决策向有利于他们的方向倾斜。 化石燃料行业是最近最明显的例子。
普遍存在的问题
近年来，游说活动急剧增长，尤其是在堪培拉。 现在，它代表了善治和健全公共政策发展方面日益严重的腐败现象。 在谈到所谓的气候变化“公共辩论”时，罗斯·加诺特教授强调了既得利益者对气候变化公共讨论带来的“恶魔问题”。
总理和内阁部前秘书马丁·帕金森警告说，“既得利益者”以牺牲普通公民的利益为代价寻求政府让步。 在谈到反对公司税和碳污染改革政策时，SMH 的罗斯·吉廷斯 (Ross Gittins) 表示，“行业游说团体在以牺牲更广泛的公共利益为代价来压制私人利益方面变得越来越不拘束。 [他们]强烈抵制改革建议。”
问题越来越严重
大约有 280 个游说实体在堪培拉向总理和内阁部注册。 他们代表 3600 多名客户进行游说，并雇用近 900 名员工作为说客。
除了这些“第三方”游说者之外，还有一些特殊利益集团自己进行游说，例如澳大利亚矿产委员会、澳大利亚药房协会和澳大利亚商业委员会。
这些游说者涉及一系列利益，包括采矿、俱乐部、医院、私人健康保险基金、企业和酒店，他们都在许多方面成功地挑战了政府政策和公共利益。
想想澳大利亚矿产委员会为击败矿业超额利润税并推翻陆克文总理所做的努力吧。 该委员会领导了反对碳税的运动，碳税仍然是通过对“外部性”征税来减少碳污染的最明智的方式。
澳大利亚俱乐部开展了阻挠赌博改革的活动。 赌博业通过不间断的广告活动假装有社会良知，但用小字告诉受害者“负责任地赌博”。
我们看到澳大利亚饮料委员会在破坏糖专家关于解决日益流行的肥胖和糖尿病问题的意见方面所发挥的社会破坏性作用。
在 2007 年大选之前，私人健康保险业收到了陆克文的一封机密信，表示政府将继续提供补贴。 几年后我们才知道这一点。
据估计，堪培拉有超过 2000 名游说者拥有“橙色通行证”，可以让他们在无人陪同的情况下进入国会大厦的私人区域。 从巴顿和金斯顿的许多办事处步行即可轻松到达国会大厦，例如澳大利亚矿产委员会、药剂行会、AMA、洛克希德·马丁公司、诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司和澳大利亚商业委员会等。 从酒店步行即可轻松抵达总理和内阁、财政部、财政部和国家新闻俱乐部。 一个真正的大堂！
游说是为了赢得政治利益，从而腐蚀市场并阻止竞争。
土地重新规划就是最明显的例子。 获得有利的重新分区并大幅增加财产的价值。
秘密游说活动普遍且阴险。 它必须变得透明并受到严格限制，但不能
限制 ACOSS、红十字会和世界宣明会等重要组织发表意见的权利。
由于新闻资源不足，媒体越来越依赖游说团体在公共领域进行的宣传和推广。 我们在媒体上读到、听到和看到的许多所谓的经济和商业经济学家都受雇于银行和会计师事务所，他们有自己的私利议程。 毫不奇怪，他们对银行的萎靡和腐败一无所知。 只有皇家委员会才揭露了到底发生了什么
富有的私立学校拥有游说和政治影响力，是基于需求的资助的障碍，而出于公平和效率的原因，基于需求的资助是必要的。
堪培拉各部门的许多政策技能已经被降级，“政策”工作被外包给政策技能差且没有企业记忆的会计和咨询公司。 这种工作分配是以缩小政府规模的名义进行的，但它为那些为大而强大的公司工作的会计和商业伙伴及其游说者提供了重大优势。 这使得公共服务部门更难在游说者不断要求优惠待遇的情况下维护公共利益。 缺乏经验和年轻的部长级工作人员更有可能听取既得利益者和游说者的意见。
那么需要进行哪些改革呢？
一些州开始解决游说的祸害，但联邦政府却落在了后面。
联邦游说者必须在总理和内阁部注册，但这远远不够。 他们还应有义务及时、公开、准确地披露与部长、影子部长和高级公务员的讨论和会议。 同样的规则也应适用于既得利益者，例如澳大利亚矿产委员会，该委员会直接代表自己进行游说。 他们是最公然、最反社会的游说者。
所有持有橙色通行证的游说者都应该被禁止进入澳大利亚各地的议会大厦。 让他们游说其他地方的国会议员。
特殊利益团体的所有提案均应附有由独立专业机构编制的公共利益影响声明。 该声明应公开，并附在利益集团的陈述中。 主要私人咨询公司和四大会计师事务所应被排除在这一过程之外，因为其中许多公司已经表明自己在客户利益方面受到了损害。
公共事务研究所和悉尼研究所等接受秘密资助并充当既得利益幌子的智库不应获得税收优惠。
卫生等政府部门尤其受特殊利益影响，应该有不同的治理安排。 卫生部传统的部长/部门模式是游说者和既得利益者的快乐狩猎场，极大地破坏和破坏了紧迫的医疗改革。 由独立专业人士组成的储备银行已经显示出治理安排在限制既得利益和促进知情的公众辩论方面的好处。 我们在其他重要的政策领域也需要这样的安排。
部长或高级官员不得与退休或辞职后至少三年有关联的既得利益集团合作。 据估计，超过 50% 的注册游说者此前曾在政府、联盟党和工党工作过。
为澳大利亚广播公司提供充足的资金，以确保其能够维护公众利益并促进公众辩论，现在比以往任何时候都更加重要。 尽管有明显的缺点，澳大利亚广播公司仍然是该国最值得信赖的媒体机构。 新闻集团是最不值得信任的。
对选举资金进行重大改革以阻止强势团体收买政治恩惠至关重要。
由随机选出的、充分了解关键公共问题的人组成的公民大会可以维护公共利益并帮助政府对抗强大的既得利益。
既得利益及其在公共辩论中的腐败问题必须得到解决。 如果我们要实现民主复兴、恢复对我们公共机构的信心并制定健全的公共政策，这一点就迫在眉睫。
必须紧急处理游说的祸害以及对良好和开放政府的破坏。 很多事情都面临风险。
但改革的一个主要障碍是，对于议员、其工作人员和高级官员来说，游说在他们离开议会或公共服务部门时提供了非常丰厚的收入。
强大的游说团体不仅促进自己的利益，而且还损害那些应该监督他们的人——议会议员。
The lobbying scourge
https://johnmenadue.com/the-lobbying-scourge/
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge.
Submission to Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee re Lobbying, February 8, 2024.
Regulation of the way we manage lobbying in Australia is an even more important issue than a National Integrity Commission.
The lobbying of governments around the world by the fossil fuel industry is a major reason for the Climate Emergency we now face. There is a revolving door between our senior military officers and the arms industry, the gun runners who offer them lucrative retirement jobs.
The major parties have shown themselves to be disinterested in the lobbying scourge. The ranks of lobbyist are filled with ex Ministers, ex political staffers and former party officials.
There is an urgent need and opportunity for political parties to cooperate to force legislation for the effective regulation of lobbyists so that the public interest is always paramount
A major reason for the loss of trust in governments and parliaments is the way powerful special interests with their lobbyists have come to dominate the public debate and skew decisions in their favour. The fossil fuel sector is the most blatant and recent example.
The widespread problem
Lobbying has grown dramatically in recent years, particularly in Canberra. It now represents a growing and serious corruption of good governance and the development of sound public policy. In referring to the so called ‘public debate’ on climate change, Professor Ross Garnaut highlighted the “diabolical problem” that vested interests brought to bear on public discussion on climate change.
Martin Parkinson, a former secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has warned about “vested interests” who seek concessions from government at the expense of ordinary citizens. In referring to opposition to company tax and carbon pollution reform policies, Ross Gittins in the SMH said “industry lobby groups [have] become less inhibited in pressing private interests at the expense of the wider public interest. [They] are ferociously resistant to reform proposals.”
The problem is growing
There are about 280 lobbying entities registered in Canberra with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. They lobby on behalf of over 3600 clients and employ close to 900 staff as lobbyists.
On top of these “third party” lobbyists, there are the special interests who conduct their own lobbying, such as the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Pharmacy Guild and the Business Council of Australia.
These lobbyists encompass a range of interests including mining, clubs, hospitals, private health insurance funds, business and hotels that have all successfully challenged government policy and the public interest in many ways.
Just think what the Minerals Council of Australia did to defeat the mining super profits tax and bring down Kevin Rudd as prime minister. That same council led the campaign to defeat the carbon tax which remains the most sensible way to cut carbon pollution by taxing “externalities”.
There are the activities of Clubs Australia to thwart gambling reform. With its non stop advertising campaign the gambling industry pretends to have a social conscience but telling victims in small print to ‘gamble responsibly’.
We saw the socially damaging role of the Beverage Council of Australia in undermining expert opinion on sugar on ways to address the growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes.
Before the 2007 election the private health insurance industry received a confidential letter from Kevin Rudd that in government the subsidy would continue. We learned about it years later.
It is estimated that over 2000 lobbyists in Canberra have ‘orange passes’ that give them unescorted access to the private areas of Parliament House. It is also easy walking to Parliament House from their many offices in Barton and Kingston such as the Minerals Council of Australia, the Pharmacy Guild, AMA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Business Council of Australia to mention just a few. They are also located in easy walking distance to Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, Finance and the National Press Club. A real Lobbyland!
Lobbying is about winning political favours that corrupt markets and prevent competition.
Land rezoning is the most blatant example. Get a favourable re-zoning and dramatically increase the value of the property.
Secret lobbying is pervasive and insidious. It must be made transparent and drastically curbed but without limiting the right to be heard by such important organisations as ACOSS, Red Cross and World Vision.
With journalism under-resourced, the media depends increasingly on the propaganda and promotion put into the public arena by lobby groups. Many of the so-called economic and business economists we read, hear and see on our media are in the employ of the banks and accounting firms with their own self-interested agendas. It was no surprise that they gave us no inkling of the malaise and corruption of the banks. Only a royal commission exposed what was really happening
The wealthy private schools with their lobbying and political clout are obstacles to needs-based funding, which is necessary for both equity and efficiency reasons.
Much of the policy skills in Canberra departments have been downgraded and “policy” work is contracted out to accounting and consultancy firms with poor policy skills and no corporate memory. This handing out of work is done in the name of downsizing government but it gives a major advantage to those accounting and business associates and their lobbyists who work for large and powerful corporations. That makes it harder for the public service to safeguard the public interest against lobbyists with their incessant demands for favourable treatment. Inexperienced and young ministerial staffers are much more likely to listen to vested interests with their lobbyists.
So what reforms are necessary?
Some States are beginning to address the scourge of lobbying but the Commonwealth Government is a laggard.
Federal lobbyists have to be registered with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, but this is grossly inadequate. They should also be obliged to promptly, publicly and accurately disclose the discussions and meetings they have had with ministers, shadow ministers and senior public servants. That same rule should apply to vested interests such as the Minerals Council of Australia, which lobbies directly on its own behalf. They are the most blatant and anti social lobbyists of all.
All lobbyists with their orange passes should be banned from parliament houses across Australia. Let them lobby MPs elsewhere.
All proposals by special interest groups should be accompanied by a public interest impact statement prepared by an independent and professional body. This statement should be made public and would be attached to representations from the interest group. Major private consulting firms and the four large accounting firms should be excluded from this process as many of them have shown themselves to be compromised in the interests of their clients.
Think tanks such as the Institute of Public Affairs and the Sydney Institute, which are secretly funded and act as fronts for vested interests, should not receive tax benefits.
Government departments such as Health, which are especially influenced by special interests, should have different governance arrangements. The traditional minister/department model in the Health Department is a happy hunting ground for lobbyists and vested interests, significantly undermining and sabotaging urgent health reforms. The Reserve Bank, composed of independent and professional persons, has shown the benefit of governance arrangements in keeping vested interests at bay and promoting an informed public debate. We need such an arrangement in other important policy areas as well.
No minister or senior official should work with a vested interest group that they have been associated with for at least three years after retirement or resignation. It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of registered lobbyists have previously worked in government, for the Coalition and Labor.
Adequate funding of the ABC, to ensure it can assert the public interest and promote public debate, is now more important than ever. The ABC, despite its obvious shortcomings, is still the most trusted media institution in the country. News Corp is the least trusted.
Major reform of election funding to stop powerful groups buying political favours is essential.
Citizen assemblies of randomly selected people who are fully informed on key public issues could assert the public interest and help governments counter powerful vested interests.
The problem of vested interests and their corruption of public debate must be tackled. This is urgent if we are to have democratic renewal, restore some faith in our public institutions and develop sound public policies.
The scourge of lobbying and the undermining of good and open government must be dealt with urgently. A great deal is at risk.
But a major obstacle to reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament or the public service.
Powerful lobby groups not only promote their own interests but compromise those who should be supervising them — members of Parliament.
An earlier version of this post appeared, Sep 14, 2022 in P&I and is available here.
