TWO companies with strong links to the Rudd Government have emerged as the biggest lobbyists on the federal political scene, dwarfing most other players in terms of staff numbers and client lists.
Labor campaign adviser Hawker Britton and government-linked Government Relations Australia are the big two in thelobbying world, each representing companies with billions of dollars in turnover in the corridors of power.
The level of their interests has been revealed for the first time in the Register of Lobbyists, created by Kevin Rudd to increase transparency in the political process.
It reveals the previously shadowy world of lobbying includes 132 companies employing 370 individuals who make their living attempting to influence government decisions. They work on behalf of 983 clients ranging from small industry associations to multinational mining giants.
The lack of a register prior to this means it is not possible to know how much the two Labor-aligned companies have flourished since the election of the Rudd Government.
Hawker Britton, whose managing director Bruce Hawker has long advised Labor on its campaigning, has the most number of clients, with 93 customers including Clubs Australia, drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline, Westpac Banking, Medibank Private and consultants Ernst & Young and KPMG. The company employs 21lobbyists.
GRA, which previously employed the Prime Minister's chief of staff, David Epstein, has 19 lobbyists on its books representing 70 clients.
The firm's diverse client list includes resources and energy companies Bluescope Steel, Theiss Pty Ltd, Loy Yan Power, the BG Group, OneSteel and Monash Energy as well as supermarket operator Aldi Stores.
The Opposition last week described Mr Epstein as hopelessly compromised by his links with GRA, run in Canberra by his wife, Sandra Eccles, and in which he previously held a financial stake.
Mr Rudd has insisted Mr Epstein has no financial involvement in the company and does not deal with any of its representatives.
Most other lobbying firms hire only a few lobbyists and represent fewer than 10 clients.
The major exception to rival Hawker Britton and GRA is CPR Communications and Public Relations. CPR reports having 55 clients on its books, including consultancy Accenture, the Australian Gaming Machine Manufacturers Association, investment bank Babcock and Brown and the Red Cross Blood Bank. It hires the most individual lobbyists of any of the firms, 42, although it is understood many of them spend most of their time on the public relations side of the business.
Mr Rudd told The Australian through a spokesman yesterday that the register was providing the community with unprecedented access to information about third-party lobbyists and their clients.
