Crackdown on lobbyists after explosive anti-corruption inquiry

Third-party lobbyists will be forced to disclose links to local councils for the first time in a significant shake-up of integrity laws after the explosive Operation Rosny anti-corruption inquiry uncovered links between a slew of senior Liberal Party operatives and fugitive property developer Jean Nassif.

The Minns government will on Monday announce a series of reforms aimed at tightening lobbying laws, including new investigative powers that will formally establish the NSW Electoral Commission as the regulator for lobbyists, and hand the agency new powers to investigate any suspected breaches of the laws.

The changes will also introduce rules restricting post-separation employment for senior bureaucrats, as well as recommending greater disclosure of contact between public servants and lobbyists, and requiring ministers to disclose meetings with lobbyists at political fundraisers.

The reforms, which come five years after ICAC recommended a major overhaul of lobbying laws in the state, are a watered-down version of reforms announced but never passed by former premier Dominic Perrottet before he lost power.

In the most significant change, the local government sector will be covered by lobbying rules for the first time.

While third-party lobbyists who work in the state and federal government spheres are required to be listed on a lobbying register and to adhere to ethical standards, no similar rules apply for local government. The NSW Special Minister of State John Graham said that “needs to change”.

“Over the decades, including very recently, we have seen corrupt behaviour targeting local government. That is why it’s important we strengthen the protections around lobbying,” he said.

He said the reforms would “protect the public interest and make sure that lobbying, at all levels of government, is transparent and strongly regulated”.

“People expect governments to operate with transparency, and they expect strong safeguards against undue influence.”

The changes come after the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s mammoth Operation Rosny inquiry heard that a group of Liberal Party operatives, including registered third-party lobbyists Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, had been paid millions of dollars by Nassif in return for political favours.

The inquiry emerged out of claims aired in parliament by Liberal MP Ray Williams in 2022 that party figures and lobbyists had been paid by Nassif to install new councillors on The Hills Shire Council who would be sympathetic to the developer. While ICAC said it found no evidence that had occurred — instead it homed in on alleged plots to influence the former state Coalition government — the Herald has previously reported the men were members of a group known as the NSW Reformers, which aimed to control the state division of the Liberal Party by signing up members to win preselection ballots.

The reforms are a watered-down response to recommendations to tighten lobbying rules first made by the ICAC five years ago. The ICAC made 29 recommendations to overhaul lobbying following the probe, known as Operation Eclipse, including new obligations for public officials who are lobbied and a ban on “undocumented or secret” meetings.

In response, Perrottet announced all third-party and in-house lobbyists would be required to register with a new lobbying regulator and all MPs – not just ministers – would be required to disclose their diaries each month.

Senior political advisers — not just public servants — would also be banned from engaging in lobbying relating to matters they had official dealings with in their last 12 months in a government office.

But the government will impose just a six-month ban for some senior public servants, while not extending it to ministerial staff, arguing they are not decision-makers. Similarly, in-house lobbyists will continue to be exempt from lobbyist disclosure rules. Ministerial diaries would be “enhanced” to make them “consolidated and searchable” while the rules would be clarified to ensure disclosure is required for fundraising events involving exclusive or private access to a minister.

Rather than establish a new lobbying regulator, the Minns government will formalise the Electoral Commission’s role as the watchdog for lobbyists while handing it new powers requiring government agencies and officials to hand over relevant records for compliance audits.

The government said the reforms had been developed in consultation with ICAC and the Electoral Commission “to ensure the changes are proportionate and effective”.

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