Our new report, Swimming in a Sea of It: Vested-interest lobbying in Aotearoa New Zealand, draws on 36 interviews with political insiders to make the case for domestic lobbying regulation.
As is now well-established, New Zealand has essentially no rules governing lobbying, defined as the efforts of individuals and groups to contact policy-makers and influence their decisions. Indeed a recent OECD report ranked us last of 50 major economies for lobbying transparency.
The people on the receiving end of lobbying are rarely asked to describe their experiences – yet they have valuable insights to share. So, earlier this year, we carried out 36 anonymous interviews with current and former ministers, MPs, ministerial staffers and public servants.
What they told us
Some interviewees felt lobbying was reasonably balanced and transparent. Many did not. Their concerns included:
- government agencies hiring lobbyists to contact their own ministers;
- material supplied in ways designed to avoid the Official Information Act;
- large imbalances in who ministers hear from, depending on the resources groups can put into lobbying;
- lobbyists going over departments’ heads to target prime ministers directly;
- a revolving door spinning so fast that ministers didn't always realise former staffers were now lobbying them;
- lobbyists using relationships to obtain confidential information about policy processes; and
- agencies so reliant on lobbyists that their advice amounted to industry information on official letterhead.
None of this means that lobbying per se is a problem; indeed it is a normal and necessary part of democracy, carried out by NGOs and unions as well as businesses and third-party lobbyists. The problem is vested-interest lobbying, where those with enough economic or political power can pull decisions away from the public interest.
What should change
In our report, we call for the introduction of five mechanisms that are now standard in lobbying regulation overseas:
- a Regulation of Lobbying Act
- a public register of lobbyists' contacts with designated public officials, updated quarterly
- a one-to-three-year stand-down period for former officials
- a mandatory code of conduct for lobbyists
- an independent Lobbying Commission or Integrity Commission with enforcement powers.
We also recommend more public participation in decision-making, better-resourced and more independent regulators, and a stronger public service able to give ministers robust advice. Taken together, these reforms could help ensure that lobbying supports the public good rather than distorting it, that ministers hear from a wide range of voices, and that the public can have greater confidence in the integrity of government decisions.
The full report, Swimming in a Sea of It: Vested-interest lobbying in Aotearoa New Zealand, is available here
