Cracking the code

Public anger towards weak lobbyist regulation on the other side of the world today as Australia's new code of conduct for political consultants was rubbished by Prof. John Warhurst, a leading politics science academic.

The code, imposed by the Australian Senate last month, has been attacked for not being sufficiently comprehensive (failing to cover the lobbying of unions, industry associations, churches and charities or corporate executives).

This story could be seen as a boost for the self-regulatory regime currently in place in the UK. It is no surprise that when set against it, lobbyists prove to be pretty competent at lobbying for a dilution of something that curtails their own activities. But when it is in their own market interest to draw up and enforce a code, pushing for weaknesses does not lead to an optimum long-term gain for a consultancy.