The Washington Post has an article on the explosive increase of lobbying in the US [reg required]. The conditions identified for this growth in the US, will soon be mimicked in Australia.

A Lobby in the Lobby

The article identified three main factors for the increase in lobbying;

The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.

Corporations are using the monopoly on coercion the government has to secure benefits for themselves, and to ensure they get a chunk of the taxpayers pie, or escape having to pay their chunk of the tax pie.

The article also makes the point that the Republicans are not only pro-business, but also pro-government and have expanded the size of government spending by thirty percent in four years. The Federal government currently throws $2.29 trillion into an eleven trillion economy.

And despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets such as defence, homeland security and medical coverage.

I can attest to the growth in the military and home security sector. A security clearance is worth about a $20,000 increase in salary in the Washington DC area. Despite my non-American credentials, I have had interviews with agents from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) as character references. The ATF is part of Homeland Security.

In addition, President Bush has signed into law five major tax-cut bills over the past four years. His administration has also curtailed regulation. Over the past five years, the number of new federal regulations has declined by 5 percent, to 4,100, according to Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., a vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The number of pending regulations that would cost businesses or local governments $100 million or more a year has declined even more, by 14.5 percent to 135 over the period.

Companies have had to redouble their lobbying merely to keep track of it all.

But Republicans have also been intrusive, despite their cutting of regulations.

At the same time, government activism has presented potential problems for business. "As government grows, unless you're right there to limit it, it can intrude in just about any industry," Livingston said. "There are agencies that love to do things and acquire new missions. People in industry better have good lobbyists or they're going to get rolled over."

Since American representatives and senators are so easy to sway, and buy, one company can use the legislative system to buy advantages for their company - at the expense of competitors and competition. A good example of this was the recent bill introduced by Senator Santorum, which sought to establish a monopoly for Accuweather, by banning the government from distributing weather data for free.

Lobbying in Australia

There is not much information on lobbying in Australia. One of the reasons is that lobbying inst as regulated in Australia. So we don't really know the level of lobbying that goes on. Allan Fels writes ;

In Australia the rules are decidedly more relaxed. A lobbyist must register with parliament, but this requires only a nomination by two MPs once every three years. This register is not published, and there is no information on exactly who is being represented, who is being lobbied, what lobbying activities are being carried out, and how much is being spent to inform and cajole MPs.

There is lobbying and then there is lobbying. If I turned up on John Howards doorstep and made the request that he implement a Bill of Rights, that is lobbying - citizen lobbying. Then there is groups that form to lobby a single issue. Again this seems important in getting through to a representative who represent a lot of people and don't have time to meet with numerous individuals. This is a failing of the representative system - but a reality.

The issue is where money is being used to buy access to representatives. This is definitely the case in the US, despite the amounts being spent, and contributed to political campaigns. The purchasing of legislation and exemptions is often quite blatant and naked.

From Carmen Lawrence's experiences in parliament, politicians are constantly lobbied ;

One of the most obvious features of national political life is the steady stream of lobbyists - individuals and organisations - who turn up in the corridors of Parliament seeking to influence the policies and decisions of their representatives. Some are motivated by their own or their shareholders' interests; others by a desire to achieve particular outcomes which they believe will be of benefit to the society or some more narrowly defined sectional interest. Most people would regard such contact as a legitimate and basic right in any democracy.

Carmen inst concerned about people lobbying her, but rather that access isn't equal amongst all lobbyists. Those with more money purchase access to the representatives;

But it disturbs me - as it should all citizens - that there are some who are more equal than others. This is, in part, due to the fact that some - mainly business - groups are able to devote substantial resources to the task. They wine and dine MPs and provide them with "corporate hospitality" as part of carefully crafted lobbying built on personal contact and expensive "information" campaigns. And no public record is kept of these proceedings.

The United States and Canada has regulations to record the contributions and access of lobbyists, but this has not stopped legislation being skewed by monied interests. Nor has this stopped contributions and wining/dining from purchasing access. While the regulations, and public record of lobbyists can help a voter to make an informed decision at the ballot box - it has not stopped the purchasing of access or legislation.

Local Conditions

In 1999 taxation revenue was 141 billion, in 2004 it was 209 billion. In the projected government finances for 2003-2004, the federal government spent 210 billion . It is fair to say, that government spending is increases along with increased tax generation from taxpayers. Australia likes big government as much as the US does.

The Howard government will soon have a majority in the Australian Senate. Since the Westminster system collapses the power of the Executive into the Prime Minister, like the Republicans in the US, the Liberal Party will control the Executive and both houses in the Legislature.

Whether the third aspect of the increase in lobbying in the US system will manifest itself in Australia remains to be seen. Australia is rather anaemic on defence spending, and we don't yet have a department of pork called Homeland Security. But as citizens we probably wont know, since the only way to find out about the lobbying that occurs is through lodging freedom of information requests.

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