Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics

Grattan Institute 2018 6 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Policy makers are expected to weigh these sources of information and Party pre-selection processes are another check on the conduct and make decisions in the public interest.3 At the highest level, the public policy views of parliamentarians, at least for the major parties. [...] parliament, about the best course of action.5 In practice, policy often compromises between competing views of the public interest.6 1.1.2 These safeguards are not perfect and in some cases are becoming weaker As part of this process, elected representatives and many others spend considerable time and effort thinking about, analysing and debating the Democracy isn’t a perfect safeguard of the publ. [...] Grattan Institute 2018 7 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics There are concerns that the public service is losing policy capability12 others.17 The most extreme version of this is graft – where an interest and is being sidelined as a source of policy advice.13 The rise of group pays for a vote or regulatory decision. [...] Industries that are heavily regulated by government, such as property development, transport, and mining, are particularly prone to rent- While lobbying spend gives a sense of the size of the industry, it seeking because complex regulations tend both to affect many areas cannot capture the costs to the public of poor policy encouraged by of their business and are difficult for outsiders to underst. [...] is still among the best-ranked countries in the world, it is the only highly-ranked country to have experienced a significant decline in the The perception of undue influence undermines trust in government index, slipping 8 points between 2012 and 2017 (Figure 1.3).