Letter in response to ICAC Discussion Paper on the Regulation of Lobbying, Access and Influence in NSW
In PIAC’s short submission in response to this Discussion Paper we focused on a few issues which raise particular concerns around corruption and inappropriate access and influence.
This included calling for the Lobbyists Register to be expanded to cover in-house lobbyists, in addition to the third-party lobbyists who are already covered.
We also recommended that Members of Parliament should be explicitly prohibited from undertaking paid lobbying activities, as well as for the definition of government official to be expanded to include Members of Parliament.
PIAC further called for lobbyists to be prohibited from giving gifts to government officials, as well as supporting the development of NSW Government guidelines on fair consultation processes.
Finally, we questioned whether there was a need to establish a new standalone regulator for the lobbyist register, separate to the NSW Electoral Commission.
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