More and more countries are shining lights on lobbyists’ efforts to shape policy. For all the hope of a new politics after the Scottish indyref, the SNP government is offering a limp biscuit.
Even many Americans don’t know much about organisations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation. But these groups play a critical role in advancing conservative policies.
The tobacco industry used advertising to sell – rather than convey – its message in its lobbying tactics.
AAP/Joe Castro
The lobbying tactics developed by the US tobacco industry no longer just targeted government, but expanded to include the voting public. These tactics still exist in lobbying today.
Business, environmental, trade union and social groups all see advantages in looking beyond high-emission industries such as coal-fired power.
Nick Pitsas/CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
The Australian Climate Roundtable unites business, environmental and social groups in calling for a strong climate policy. This unprecedented show of unity might even break down Canberra’s climate stalemate.
Well-connected landowners owned 75% of the rezoned land, but only 12% of comparable land immediately outside the rezoning boundaries.
AAP/David Crosling
A study tracks how well-connected land-owners have benefited from favourable rezoning decisions. So what’s the best way to crack down on these cosy relationships?
Corporate interests and wealthy individuals reckon they can turn a profit by cajoling politicians round to their way of thinking. So how can the humble electorate hope to respond?
Meet Dave, the former lobbyist who promised to sort out political lobbying.
Anthony Devlin/PA
The ethics surrounding corporate and foreign donations to the foundations of politicians are murky, but it’s hard to deny the givers are angling for influence.
Foreign PR campaigns have been waged for decades. Films like 1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front were significantly altered to appease Germany’s Nazi Party.
filmjunk.com
Feature films and television shows notoriously play fast-and-loose with the facts. When prologues proclaim “Based on a True Story,” they’re gracefully implying that what follows is mostly fiction. Awards…
Big Food in Australia is not the same as the industry in the United States, where much of the popular media has come from.
Steven Caddy/Flickr
Criticism of the food industry has itself become a niche industry. But the tendency to embrace a US-centric conception of how the industry works risks masking local variants and inhibiting a targeted response…
The Abbott government’s proposed adoption laws appear to have been influenced by high-profile campaigners like actor Deborah-Lee Furness.
AAP/Jane Dempster
The Australian government seems intent on lessening protections for children adopted overseas despite national and international evidence showing greater protection is needed. Two important reports on…
Public anger over the recent federal budget blindsided big business who advised government on its key measures.
AAP/Courtney Fry
Many who study or comment on contemporary business and politics equate corporate leadership with the ability to influence events in a coherent or knowledgeable way. The usual narrative is that CEOs of…
The only leader in politics to call out the CBI.
John Stillwell/PA
The CBI is big business, it is corporatism, it is effectively an arm of government So said Ukip leader Nigel Farage when interviewed by the BBC on what businesses feel about Europe. Farage may be wilfully…
US multinationals, through a network of lobby groups, are pushing back against attempts to reform international corporate taxation.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
Researchers estimate the US loses more than US$90 billion annually in corporate income tax revenues from tax loopholes and tax havens, also known as base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). With a growing…
On the march against big business.
Light Brigading
Under the mantra of civil rights, billionaires such as Eli Broad, Bill Gates and the Koch Brothers and the powerful corporate-funded lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are using…
Roll up, roll up! Alcohol still going cheap.
Sang Tan/AP
The British Medical Journal’s investigation into the role played by the alcohol industry in public health policy focuses on the government’s decision to drop its commitment to introduce a minimum unit…
Revolving door means you can advise government then advise industry.
Zeeweez
The appointment of senior civil servant David Frost as Chief Executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, one of the alcohol industry’s most aggressive lobby groups, is just the latest high profile case…
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