Committee recommends no change to lobbyist definition

Committee recommends no change to lobbyist definitionThe Queensland Parliament’s Finance and Administration Committee has rejected calls to dramatically redefine the meaning of a lobbyist, deflecting a new regulatory burden for non-third party advocates who interact with the State Government on behalf of their members or company.The Committee has considered the recommendations of the four-yearly strategic review of the role of the Integrity Commissioner, undertaken by QUT Vice Chancellor – Peter Coaldrake. The change, proposed in the review, would have expanded the significant compliance requirements of the Act to capture in-house advocates, non-profit entities, and effectively anyone who wanted to communicate their views on matters of public interest to the government or opposition.The Property Council successfully argued that entities constituted to represent the interest of their members, such as the Property Council of Australia, have clear transparency about who they represent and what outcomes they aim to achieve from their interaction with government.The Committee found that the current lobbyist regulation regime achieves its purpose of ensuring transparency in the representations made to government officials and therefore could not support its expansion beyond fee-for-service lobbyists.A number of proposed changes to the Act were agreed to by the Committee including allowing former members access to advice services for a period of two years.