A recent addition to the Australian government’s lobbyist register is on Robert John Carr, who went by the name of “Bob” when he was the member for Maroubra for some 22 years and premier of the great state of NSW for a decade.
Carr lists his clients as Macquarie Group, law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, and research organisations The Climate Institute and Asbestos Disease Research Foundation.
Another Carr client is Visy, the private company of cardboard box billionaire Richard Pratt, past owner of an Order of Australia gong and currently facing charges for allegedly misleading Graeme Samuel’s ACCC. Earlier in the year, the hush around Capital Hill was that despite Carr’s fabled door-opening skills, he could not secure a meeting for Visy with Senator Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water.
After Pratt and his executives were last year fined $38 million for price-fixing, was Visy too hot to handle?
Had Carr lost his golden touch?
The official word was that the queue to see a key Canberra player like Wong in the first days of Kevin Rudd’s regime was 1000 hungry mouths long.
Apparently, Wong’s people were just like the over-caffeinated, 30-somthing loveless neurotics who now populate the ministerial wing.
Many are still learning the finer points of second-guessing the Prime Minister’s main honchos David Epstein and Alister Jordan , so accustomed have they become to taking requests “on notice”.
One of Carr’s former NSW ministers, Sandra Nori, also features on the register. Nori, who was once married to Special Minister of State John Faulkner, represents Datadot Technology and, pro bono, several charities, including the Wayside Chapel.
But the most successful of the Carr-ites is long time chief of staff Bruce Hawker.
His lobbying outfit Hawker Britton, a heavy-duty Labor Party donor and cashier, lists a phenomenal 105 clients, such as Telstra, Chinalco, Westpac, Medibank Private, a clutch of universities and a score of not-for-profits. Hawker has brought on board a posse of Carr government operatives, including Eamonn Fitzpatrick, Rob Griggs and Sean Macken. Lobbying now has a Carr Dynasty and its own patron. Saint Bruce.
