Who gets heard in Australian politics? Donations, lobbyists and the revolving door

What Australians think

Since the early 2000s, more Australians agree that "people in government look after themselves" and that "government is run for a few big interests" (Australian Election Study, cited by Grattan). In a 2018 poll of 2,218 people, 85% said at least some federal MPs were corrupt. 56% said they had witnessed or suspected an official favouring a donor or supporter. The share was higher among people who had worked in federal government themselves.

Grattan's report asks what sits behind that feeling, using public records.

What the records show

Donations come from a few

Parties declared $43 million in donations at the 2016 federal election. Just 5% of donors gave more than half of it. About 40% of the parties' money came from sources the public couldn't see, much of it probably small gifts under the disclosure threshold, then about $13,500.

Some donations track policy fights. Gambling-industry donations spiked in 2010–11, while the industry campaigned against the Gillard government's poker machine reforms. Labor backed down, and the donations fell back.

Lobbyists outnumbered by pass holders

In July 2018, about 500 commercial lobbyists sat on the federal register. Another 1,755 people held sponsored "orange passes" that let them walk Parliament House unescorted. Many in-house lobbyists for companies, unions and charities never had to register at all.

Meetings go to regulated industries

The federal government didn't publish ministerial diaries. Queensland and NSW did. There, 62–63% of senior ministers' outside meetings were with businesses or industry bodies. Industries whose profits hinge on government decisions, such as mining, property, gambling and finance, got more meetings than their size in the economy would suggest.

The revolving door

Since 1990, about a quarter of former federal ministers and assistant ministers took jobs with special interests after politics. Ministers promise to wait 18 months before lobbying on matters they handled. Grattan notes the promise is administrative only, with no penalty for breaking it. About 68% of ministers and shadow ministers had declared corporate hospitality.

How it plays out: the mining tax

In 2010 the Rudd government proposed a 40% tax on mining profits above the bond rate, as the Henry tax review recommended. The Minerals Council of Australia launched an advertising campaign within days. Mining companies spent about $22 million on ads; the government spent about $9 million replying. After Julia Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd, the government negotiated a narrower tax with the three biggest miners, estimated at the time to cost $60 billion in revenue over ten years. The Coalition repealed it in 2014.

Grattan's point is not that miners were wrong to argue their case. Everyone may lobby. The worry is who can afford to be heard loudest, and whether ministers ever hear the people who can't.

It isn't only business

Grattan names unions, industry bodies and GetUp! among the biggest political advertisers of the past decade. Unions are major donors too. The issue is money and access wherever they come from, not one side of politics.

Why decent people end up here

Sociologist Alvin Gouldner described the near-universal urge to return a favour. High Court Justice Stephen Gageler applied it to politics in McCloy v New South Wales (2015): "the basic human tendency towards reciprocity means that payments all too readily tend to result in favours." No bribe is needed. A system that puts the same people in the same rooms, year after year, produces the tilt on its own.

What Grattan asked for, and what happened

2018 recommendation	Status
A federal anti-corruption body	Done. The National Anti-Corruption Commission began work on 1 July 2023.
Lower the donation disclosure threshold to $5,000, with faster reporting	Legislated. From 1 January 2027 the threshold drops from $17,300 to donations above $5,000, with disclosure within days during elections.
Cap election spending to cut reliance on big donors	Legislated in the same package, with donation caps: $50,000 a year from one donor to one recipient, indexed.

Grattan's other asks, publishing federal ministerial diaries, linking the lobbyist register to orange passes and making the cooling-off period enforceable, sit outside electoral law. Check their status before you assume either way. The new donation rules first apply at an election after 1 January 2027; watch who they help and who they don't.

Check it yourself

1. Look up any party or donor on the AEC Transparency Register. Annual returns come out each February.
2. Search the federal Register of Lobbyists for who represents a company you care about.
3. Read a Queensland or NSW minister's published diary, and count who they met.
4. Ask your local MP, in writing, whom they met about a bill you care about.