The Front Page: Why Government lobbying rules need to change | T-10 NEWS

The rules governing New Zealand’s political lobbyists need to change.

Max Rashbrooke, a Wellington-based researcher and author who focuses on democracy and the economy, told the NZ Herald’s Front Page podcast that the move of former cabinet minister Kris Faafoi into lobbying shows the current system has serious flaws.

“I don’t have a problem with lobbying, per se, but in the Kris Faafoi case he has access to enormous amounts of confidential public information, which he gained through his years as a minister,” says Rashbrooke.

“He knows everything about every decision that was taken at Cabinet. He knows exactly who to lobby on what issues. He knows what ministers think. And he knows which ones are vulnerable to which arguments.”

Rashbrooke argues that information should stay confidential and remain within the walls of Cabinet, where it isn’t vulnerable to influence from those with vested interests.

“It shouldn’t be auctioned off to people who can pay for Faafoi’s services, which is potentially what’s going to happen here.”

While New Zealand lobbyists certainly aren’t as widespread and influential as those in the United States, Rashbrook says the issue shouldn’t be ignored here.

“It can be pretty insidious because we’re a very small country,” he says.

“So you have lots of potential for very cosy relationships for people to get an inside track.”

The lobbying problem isn’t only limited to Government Ministers. We’ve also seen many senior members of Government staff leave their roles to later join some of Wellington’s influential lobbying firms.

“It’s a serious concern because you have lots of people who have very intimate information about how the Government works – and that shouldn’t be used by private firms to get advantages by manipulating their access to confidential public information.”

Rashbrooke says there is a place for lobbying but believes there needs to be a significant cooling-off period for those who leave central government to take on lobbying roles – an approach that’s already used in a number of countries.

“The idea is basically when you leave your job as a Minister, you have to spend a certain period of time, generally some years, before you can move into lobbying your previous Government departments and agencies.

“Politics moves fast and information eventually loses its currency. So once you’ve been out of the game for a couple of years, the very confidential information you had is probably no longer so relevant. And so, there’s less threat to the public interest if you go into lobbying.”

If Faafoi were based in the United States or the United Kingdom, he would have had to wait two years before joining a lobbying firm. In Canada, the wait would have been five years.

Beyond the cooling-off period, Rashbrooke also says that we need to see greater transparency in terms of who is lobbying and what they are lobbying for.

“We know a little bit in New Zealand because, under this Government, Ministers now publish their diaries, but the system works far better in places like Ireland where they have a comprehensive lobbying register, which every lobbyist has to fill in. They have to make an entry every time they go and lobby someone and they have to say what it was about. So that gives us a much clearer picture of who’s talking to whom.”

• The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.

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