The gambling lobby’s failure to seriously influence the 2016 ACT election should embolden governments around Australia that have a mind to deal with gambling reform.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians marched against the deployment of Australian troops to Iraq.
Simon Mossman/AAP
Super is the wrong tool to provide an adequate support in retirement for low-income earners. Our research shows top-up measures to help this group are poorly targeted and too expensive.
If your health practitioner has used a syringe, pacemaker, dental filling or joint implant to treat you, you’ve encountered a product from the medical technology industry.
Former resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson went into lobbying for that sector after retiring from politics.
AAP/Paul Miller
Mobilising and organising large numbers of voters makes for a powerful political force, and as a tool for change in democracies. Its use is not limited to ‘elites’.
Malcolm Turnbull’s plan for small business: you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The 2016 election has shown that when there is a close result, negative advertising can be a very powerful campaign tool.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt faced a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing called ‘The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition’ in 2011.
Larry Downing/Reuters
The Property Council of Australia, a lobby group representing the biggest real estate developers, has shaped election debate about negative gearing and some taxes.
Pathology in Australia is big business.
ariadna de raadt/Shutterstock
Pathology Australia promptly abandoned its Don’t Kill Bulk Bill campaign against cuts to bulk-billing incentives after doing a deal with the federal government.
The ACF’s major focus this election is shaping up to be the Great Barrier Reef.
Geoff Cousins
The ACF has retreated from an “insider” approach of lobbying politicians for policy change, towards a more grass-roots approach, harnessing community support. And it seems to be working.
GetUp! has claimed a win for its five year campaign to stop dredging and new coal mines near the Reef.
Maleika Halpin/AAP
Political engagement in Australia has changed enormously over the past decade. New organisations such as GetUp! have taken the lead in channelling citizen voice into politics.
BCA President Catherine Livingstone greets Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Lobbying in Australia is a multi-billion dollar industry which employs a sophisticated strategy to win public opinion and political favours for its clients or members. Here’s how.
New AMA president Michael Gannon is looking to ‘build bridges’ with what he expects will be a returned Turnbull government.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The AMA has campaigned heavily on the Medicare rebate freeze, pointing out its potential impact on patient access if out-of-pocket costs were to increase.
Big Tobacco will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure moves to quell smoking rates fail.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Big Tobacco relies on tactics of deceit, delay and frustration which it has developed and refined over half a century.
Allegations that President Jacob Zuma’s friends, the Gupta family, corruptly dictate cabinet appointments have plunged South Africa into a political crisis.
Shutterstock
Lobbying political actors to achieve particular outcomes is an acceptable practice in a democracy. But state capture, as is allegedly happening in South Africa, denotes holding the state to ransom.
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University