Australia Since the 1980s, lobbying in
Australia has grown from a small industry of a few hundred employees to a multi-billion dollar per year industry. What was once the preserve of big multinational companies and at a more local level (property developers, for example,
Urban Taskforce Australia) has morphed into an industry that employs more than 10,000 people and represents every facet of human endeavour. Academic John Warhurst from the
Australian National University noted that over this time, retired politicians have increasingly turned political lobbyists to leverage their networks and experience for private gain. In 2018 he noted that two of the top three
Howard government ministers had become lobbyists:
Alexander Downer and
Peter Costello, and that the trend could be traced back to the
Hawke government of 1983.
Mick Young stated that by 1983 the lobbying profession was an established part of the democratic political process in Canberra. Warhurst attests that by 2018, "political leader-lobbyists" were an established part of the same process. During the 1980s, political leaders traded on their own names, like
Bob Hawke, or joined the "respectable" end of the lobbying spectrum, working for law firms or banks, like former New South Wales premiers
Nick Greiner and
Bob Carr. In 2008, Alexander Downer formed the lobbying firm Bespoke Approach, along with former
Labor minister
Nick Bolkus and
Ian Smith, who is married to former
Australian Democrats leader,
Natasha Stott-Despoja. Peter Costello carried two former staffers to work with him in his lobbying firm, ECG Consulting: Jonathan Epstein and David Gazard. Politicians can become exposed to allegations of conflicts of interest when they both lobby and advise governments. Examples include Peter Costello. Political party staff often form lobbying firms or dominate their ranks. Former Howard chief-of-staff Grahame Morris is the director of Barton Deakin Government Relations. His colleagues there include David Alexander (former Costello staffer),
Sallyanne Atkinson (former Lord Mayor of Brisbane and former federal
Liberal Party candidate), Howard staffer John Griffin and former New South Wales Liberal Party leader, Peter Collins. The Labor "sister" company is Hawker Britton, so named as both firms are owned by STW Group. In 2013, Hawker Britton had 113 client companies on its books. In 2013, there were just under 280 firms on the Federal Australian Register of Lobbyists. Steve Carney of Carney Associated said that lobbyists "try to leave no thumbprints on the glass, no footprints in the sand. The best lobbying is when nobody knows you were there."
Supermarket sector lobbying Supermarket chains in Australia engage lobbying firms with political weight in their ranks. Australian Supermarket giant
Coles is represented by both ECG Consulting and Bespoke Approach, while its own parent company,
Wesfarmers, has former West Australian premier
Alan Carpenter in charge of corporate affairs. Competitor Woolworths has a government relations team composed of former Labor and Liberal advisers, under the direction of a former leader of the National Party, Andrew Hall.
Aldi engages GRA (Government Relations Australia), one of Australia's largest lobbying firms, whose staff includes former Federal Labor treasurer,
John Dawkins. Similar registers for State government lobbyists were introduced between 2007 and 2009 around Australia. Since April 2007 in Western Australia, only lobbyists listed on the state's register are allowed to contact a government representative for the purpose of lobbying. Similar rules have applied in Tasmania since 1 September 2009 and in
South Australia and
Victoria since 1 December 2009. A criticism of the lobbyist register is that it only captures professional third-party lobbyists, not employees of companies which directly lobby government. An example of this is BHP, which employs Geoff Walsh, a key advisor to Bob Hawke as an in-house lobbyist.
Azerbaijan Bahrain In December 2022, Bahrain's lobbying efforts were reflected in a report by
The Guardian, which involved the name of a senior
Czech MEP
Tomáš Zdechovský. The controversy concerned the European Parliament's "friendship groups", the unofficial bodies operating with no formal regulations and sometimes under sponsored lobbyists and foreign governments. The European Parliament was preparing to vote on a resolution to call for the release of a Bahraini political prisoner
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. However, the chair of the European Parliament's Bahrain friendship group, Zdechovský came under question for visiting Bahrain in April 2022, without declaring. In a separate resolution, Zdechovský's
EPP failed to call for Khawaja's release and instead called him a "political opponent". Director of
BIRD, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei accused the Czech MEP of acting as a mouthpiece for Bahrain.
Canada Canada maintains a Registry of Lobbyists. As of 2018, more than 5,000 people worked as registered lobbyists at Canada's federal level. Lobbying began as an unregulated profession, but since the late 20th century has been regulated by the government to increase transparency and establish a set of ethics for both lobbyists, and those who will be lobbied. Canada does not require disclosure of lobbyist spending on lobbying activities.
European Union , in front of the main entrance of the
European Parliament The first step towards specialized regulation of lobbying in the European Union was a Written Question tabled by Alman Metten, in 1989. In 1991, Marc Galle, Chairman of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure, the Verification of Credentials and Immunities, was appointed to submit proposals for a Code of conduct and a register of lobbyists. Today lobbying in the European Union is an integral and important part of decision-making in the EU. From year to year lobbying regulation in the EU is constantly improving and the number of lobbyists increases. This increase in lobbying activity is a result of the growing recognition of lobbying as a critical discipline at the intersection of politics, economics, and society. In 2003 there were around 15,000 lobbyists (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc.) in
Brussels seeking to influence the EU's legislation. Some 2,600 special interest groups had a permanent office in Brussels. Their distribution was roughly as follows: European trade federations (32%), consultants (20%), companies (13%), NGOs (11%), national associations (10%), regional representations (6%), international organizations (5%) and
think tanks (1%), (Lehmann, 2003, pp iii). In addition to this, lobby organisations sometimes hire former EU employees (a phenomenon known as the revolving door) who possess inside knowledge of the EU institutions and policy process. This practice of hiring former EU employees is part of what lobbyist Andreas Geiger describes as lobbying's vital role in shaping law and decision-making processes, given the unique insights and access these individuals provide. A report by
Transparency International EU published in January 2017 analysed the career paths of former EU officials and found that 30% of Members of the
European Parliament who left politics went to work for organisations on the EU lobby register after their mandate and approximately one-third of Commissioners serving under Barroso took jobs in the private sector after their mandate, including for
Uber,
ArcelorMittal,
Goldman Sachs and
Bank of America Merrill Lynch. These potential conflicts of interest could be avoided if a stronger ethics framework were established at the EU level, including an independent ethics body and longer cooling-off periods for MEPs. Eventually, on 31 January 2019, the
European Parliament adopted binding rules on lobby transparency. Amending its Rules of Procedure, the Parliament stipulated that
MEPs involved in drafting and negotiating legislation must publish online their meetings with lobbyists. The amendment says that "rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs or committee chairs shall, for each report, publish online all scheduled meetings with interest representatives falling under the scope of the
Transparency Register"- the database of the EU. The European allies were being lobbied by the
UAE and
Saudi Arabia to regain diplomatic ties with the Syrian government. The two Arab countries lobbied the European Union for months, pushing them to ease the sanctions on
Syria for the revival of its collapsed economy. The
UAE and its neighbour country argued that without the ease of sanctions, the diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian war would be ineffective. However, the EU nations, including France and Germany, turned down the idea of restoring ties with
Syria, stating that it would legitimize the regime that is accused of massacring its own people.
France There is currently no regulation at all for lobbying activities in France. There is no regulated access to the French institutions and no register specific to France, but there is one for the
European Union where French lobbyists are able to register themselves. For example, the internal rule of the National Assembly (art. 23 and 79) forbids members of Parliament to be linked with a particular interest. Also, there is no rule at all for consultation of interest groups by the Parliament and the Government. Nevertheless, French National Assembly Motion for a Resolution No. 3399 was launched on November 21, 2006, to establish a register for representatives of interest groups and lobbyists who intend to lobby the MPs.
Germany In Germany, lobbying has existed since 1956, when the
Federal Constitutional Court issued a ruling legalizing it. A mandatory
lobby register (German: Lobbyliste) was introduced in Germany effective 1 January 2022, along with a code of conduct. These rules were criticized as insufficient by several opposition party members and representatives from the
Council of Europe, who argued that they did not adequately address issues of transparency and potential conflicts of interest. Stricter rules were initially scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2024, however these legal alterations did not come into force until March 1, 2024.
Italy Italy does not have lobbying legislation at the national level nowadays, even though there have been proposals by lawmakers over the years. In 2016, the Chamber of Deputies added an addendum that introduced a Regulation of interest representation. The Regulation expired in late 2017, when the term of the sitting Parliament expired. With the rise of the new parliamentary term in 2018, the Regulation was not being readopted. At the subnational level, only six regions have legislations about lobbying: Tuscany (2002), Molise (2004), Abruzzo (2010), Calabria (2016), Lombardy (2016) and Puglia (2017). These regional legislations have similar structure, but only Tuscany took a step forward to implement this legislation and create a public register. A 2016 study found evidence of significant indirect lobbying of then-Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi through business proxies. The authors document a significant pro-
Mediaset (the mass media company founded and controlled by Berlusconi) bias in the allocation of advertising spending during Berlusconi's political tenure, in particularly for companies operating in more regulated sectors. Another relevant case of lobbying that has been going on for at least 16 years concerns owners of beach establishments. Beaches are the Italian State's properties: since 2022, owners have had to pay a fee of 2698 euros to keep a public concession of a beach establishment. This is an amount of money that would be paid back just by renting for three months 2 beach umbrellas for 15 euros each (and in many cases, the renting prices are higher). The Court of Accounts has declared an imbalance between the fee and the gains from the beach establishment. Until 2009, according to a 1949 law, people who had public concessions had the right to keep them if there was no opposition from third parties. In 2009 this law was abolished under the menace of legal procedure from the EU for infraction of a 2006 directive, that established mandatory public procedures that were impartial and transparent. Anyhow, since then, governments continuously postponed any decision regarding modifying laws on public concessions for beach establishments. Under the government of Mario Draghi, the deadline for all concessions was established for 31 December 2023: anyhow, the new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni assured in a letter of November 3, 2022, that "their government would defend the families that work in that sector", and delayed the deadline of the concessions. Some politicians claim that the families involved in the issue represent a significant and influential number of electors. Finally, lobbying from taxi drivers represents a growing issue. The current situation in Italy regarding taxi services is regulated by Law No. 21 of 1992. According to this law, the responsibility for determining the number of taxi licenses, shifts, and fares is given to the municipalities. Taxi licenses are held by artisan business owners who have passed a driver's exam and are registered with the Chamber of Commerce. After holding a license for five years, reaching the age of 60, or due to illness, license holders can transfer their license to someone else upon indicating their preference to the municipality. In case of death, the license can be passed to one of the heirs or their designated individuals. Italy has an average of one taxi for every 2,000 inhabitants, whereas countries like France and Spain have ratios of 1,160 and 1,028 taxis per 2,000 inhabitants, respectively. This suggests that Italy has a relatively lower number of taxis available compared to its population. In August 2019, the then Transport Councillor Marco Granelli acknowledged the need to increase the number of taxi licenses by 450 to meet the demand. Data showed that a significant percentage of calls for taxis were going unanswered during peak hours and weekends. However, the issue was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remains uncertain when it will be addressed. The Romanian Lobby Registry Association (ARRL) was founded in June 2010 to popularize and promote lobbying activity. ARRL is a non-profit legal entity that works under private law. The majority of lobbying companies represent non-governmental organizations which activities include education, ecology, fundamental freedoms, health, consumer rights etc. Other entities that deal with lobby practice are multinational companies, Romanian companies, law firms and specialized lobby firms.
India In
India, where there is no law regulating the process, lobbying has traditionally been a tool for industry bodies like the
National Association of Software and Service Companies, the
Confederation of Indian Industry, the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India and other pressure groups to engage with the government ahead of the national budget and legislation in
parliament. Lobbying activities have frequently been identified in the context of
corruption cases, for example, the 2010
controversy surrounding leaked audio transcripts of conversations between the corporate lobbyist
Niira Radia and senior journalists and politicians. Besides private companies, the Indian government has been paying for the services of a US firm since 2005 to lobby, for example, in relation to the
India-US civilian nuclear deal. In India, there are no laws that defined the scope of lobbying, who could undertake it, or the extent of disclosure necessary. Companies are not mandated to disclose their activities and lobbyists are neither authorized nor encouraged to reveal the names of clients or public officials they have contacted. The distinction between lobbying and bribery still remains unclear. In 2012, Walmart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for investment in India". This disclosure came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial decision to permit
foreign direct investment in the country's multi-brand retail sector. Successful
grassroots lobbying campaigns include the
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan's campaign to pass the
2005 Right to Information Act and
Anna Hazare's
anti-corruption campaign to introduce the
2011 Lokpal Bill.
New Zealand There is no register for lobbying activity and no cooling off period for public officials before they can enter the lobbying industry in New Zealand, allowing politicians and Parliamentary staffers to immediately become lobbyists after leaving office.
Kris Faafoi joined a lobbying firm just three months after leaving Parliament, where he had been justice and broadcasting minister. Lobbyists also move directly into staffer positions. Gordon-Jon Thompson took a leave of absence from his lobbying firm to work as chief of staff to Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern for four months before returning to his lobbying firm. Andrew Kirton resigned from his lobbying company on 31 January 2023 and the next day was announced as chief of staff for Prime Minister
Chris Hipkins. Some
ad hoc provisions against revolving door politics exist in relation to certain industries. The Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, for example, prohibits Ministers of Immigration, Associate Ministers of Immigration and immigration officials from becoming a licensed immigration adviser for one year after leaving government employment.
Transparency International (TI) criticized the lack of oversight in the New Zealand lobbying industry in a November 2022 report as lax.
United Kingdom In the UK, lobbying plays a significant role in the formation of legislation. Various commercial organisations, lobby groups "lobby" for particular policies and decisions by Parliament and other political organs at national, regional and local levels. The phrase "lobbying" comes from the gathering of
Members of Parliament and
peers in the hallways (or lobbies) of
Houses of Parliament before and after parliamentary debates. The now-defunct
UK Public Affairs Council (UKPAC) defined lobbying as:in a professional capacity, attempting to influence, or advising those who wish to influence, the UK Government, Parliament, the devolved legislatures or administrations, regional or local government or other public bodies on any matter within their competence. Formal procedures enable individual members of the public to lobby their Member of Parliament but most lobbying activity centres on corporate, charity and trade association lobbying, where organisations seek to amend government policy through advocacy.
United States in
Washington, D.C., part of downtown Washington's maze of high-powered "
K Street lobbyist" and
law firm office buildings In the United States, some special interests hire professional advocates to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies, such as
Congress. Some lobbyists are now using
social media to reduce the cost of traditional campaigns, and to more precisely target public officials with political messages. A 2011 study of the 50 firms that spent the most on lobbying relative to their assets compared their financial performance against that of the
S&P 500, and concluded that spending on lobbying was a "spectacular investment" yielding "blistering" returns comparable to a high-flying
hedge fund, even despite the financial downturn. A 2011
meta-analysis of previous research findings found a positive correlation between corporate political activity and firm performance. A 2009 study found that lobbying brought a
return on investment of as much as 22,000% in some cases. Major American corporations spent $345 million lobbying for just three pro-immigration bills between 2006 and 2008. A review of 30 food and beverage companies spent $38.2 million on lobbying in 2020 to strengthen and maintain their influence in Washington, D.C. A study from the
Kellogg School of Management found that political donations by corporations do not increase shareholder value. The authors posit a few reasons that firms continue giving despite little returns, including signaling firm values to investors and
consumption value for individual managers.
Wall Street spent a record $2 billion trying to influence the
2016 United States presidential election.
Foreign lobbying thematized the influence of lobbyists in his book called
The Israel Lobby. Foreign-funded lobbying efforts include those of
Israel,
Saudi Arabia,
Turkey,
Egypt,
Pakistan, and
China lobbies. In 2010 alone, foreign governments spent approximately $460 million on lobbying members of Congress and government officials. In the US, lobbying for foreign governments is not illegal, but it requires registering as a
foreign agent with the
Justice Department under the
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Unofficially, according to
Politico, 'many lobbyists try to avoid representing countries that have tense relationships with
Washington or troubled human rights records'. Between 2015 and 2017, around 145 registered lobbyists were paid $18 million by Saudi Arabia to influence the U.S. government. In January 2017, an order by
Donald Trump led to a lifetime ban on administration officials from lobbying for foreign governments and a five-year ban on other forms of lobbying. However, the rule was revoked by Trump right before the end of his presidency. A number of Trump allies were found guilty of lobbying on behalf of foreign governments during the
2016 US elections, including
Paul Manafort; On January 19, 2021, President Trump granted Mr. Broidy a full and unconditional pardon.
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates has a long history of lobbying government and politicians in the West for its conflict of interest concerning building influence and using it to impact the country's foreign policy. In November 2022 it was accused of hiring PR and lobbying firms in order to promote to the politicians in the United States about its selection to host the
COP28 Climate Conference. The problem was that the promotion started even before Egypt hosted 2022's
COP27 Climate event. Fleishmann Hillard were hired to compose letters that proposed the idea of Emirati ministers attending conferences and events and using the phrase "the UAE is hosting COP28 next year". Whereas, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld were hired to reach out to US politicians particularly pushing the environmental policies or favouring fossil fuels in addition to informing them about the UAE hosting COP28. The Gulf nation even declared its intentions of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, even though 30% of their GDP relies on oil and gas directly, while the remaining relies upon industry run on heavy energy consumption. In February 2024, New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone faced scrutiny after attending the COP28 conference. Johnstone's expenses, including the conference fees, travel and accommodation, were incurred by
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, of which Dubai is a member of the sterling committee. Councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas filed a complaint against Johnstone for breaking the state's code of conduct. The investigation was assigned to Commissioner Jennifer Devins, who, in her October 2024 report, stated that Johnstone's trip provided personal benefits, which councillors are restricted from accepting. While Devins did not impose sanctions, she recommended Johnstone to take training on the laws of country. A firm based in UAE, Alasriya Media Consultancy paid $10,000 a former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to run his podcast Counter Currents. The podcast discusses global politics, including a pro-Russian narrative of the Ukraine war and US foreign policy in the Middle East. The contract was signed in May 2024, but was not disclosed in FARA filing until November. The Emirati firm is represented by a Lebanese celebrity journalist, Ghina Amyouni, whose reason for funding the podcast was unclear. In April 2025, a European Microscope for Middle East Affairs report uncovered the UAE's lobbying scandal in Europe, involving two human rights organizations– the African Meeting for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO) and TACUDU for Culture and Development. RADDHO, which claims to advocate for African human rights, accepted bribes from UAE-linked lobbyists to influence its activities. It was accused of aligning with the UAE's geopolitical agenda under the direction of Abu Dhabi, raising concerns over its neutrality. RADDHO received over half a million euros from the UAE-linked sources to promote negative campaigns against regional rivals, particularly Qatar, while neglecting human rights abuses in the UAE and its allies. TACUDU was also accused of exploiting its UN consultative status and receiving €350,000 from sources linked to the UAE embassy in Geneva to target Qatar through political campaigns. This led to calls for the
United Nations Human Rights Council to suspend TACUDU's consultative status for violating norms expected of NGOs holding UN consultative status.
Other •
Israel (1994) – a unique lobby which is called "Lobby 99" is working at the Israeli parliament. This is a lobby which is funded by the people by crowdfunding and working for the people, the 99 percent who are not among the elites which most lobbying companies represent. •
Ukraine: Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law the much-anticipated legislation on lobbying, officially known as draft law No. 10337 •
Kazakhstan: Since 1998, Kazakhstan has been trying to pass a law on lobbying. The National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan "Atameken" is one of the first official lobbying structures in the country, but there are other examples. •
South Korea: In South Korea, lobbying is viewed as a form of corruption and is illegal. •
United Nations are relevant to NGO lobbying. == Criticism ==