Lifting the lid on lobbying, ministers - and the media

An RNZ investigation lifted the lid this week on lobbyists and how they communicate with politicians outside the public gaze or official oversight. But it also raised questions for the media about how the lobbyists lobby them - and appear in the media while the public have no idea who their clients are. An RNZ investigation lifted the lid this week on lobbyists and how they communicate with politicians outside the public gaze or official oversight. But it also raised questions for the media about how the lobbyists lobby them - and appear in the media while the public have no idea who their clients are. "When a big corporate is alarmed about possible law changes, it asks its well-connected lobbyist to intervene. A text message exchange between a Cabinet Minister and his lobbyist "mate" follows," Guyon Espiner wrote in one of several articles in the In Depth series on the unseen, unchecked industry in lobbying the powerful in New Zealand. The "mate" could have been sitting around the Cabinet table not long before, he revealed, and calling for more transparency and more rules. Under the headline The lobbyist, the liquor industry and the beehive revolving door, the Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and his chief of staff were depicted against a backdrop of big booze bottles. The story said Andrew Kirton worked for a trans-Tasman lobbying firm Anacta - which acted on behalf of liquor industry giants Asahi and Lion - and pushed back against the proposed container return scheme. The first part of the series on Monday detailed the hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money being spent on lobbying firms by universities, government agencies and State Owned Enterprises. Sometimes that was to avoid or minimise awkward encounters with the media. On Monday's Morning Report, Guyon Espiner made the point several of these lobbyists are happy to appear in the media themselves - in spite of the potential conflicts of interest. "You've got no idea as a member of the public - zero - who they're actually working for. It took 70-plus OIA requests to find out who these (lobbyists') clients are. There's a pretty strong argument the public is poorly served by that because a lot of these people also giving media commentary and the public at large have no idea who these clients are," he said. This is an issue that's come up before, prompting RNZ to tighten up its rules on potential conflicts of interest in 2018 and insist on greater disclosure from lobbyists appearing as political panelists. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details