ONE of Australia's most powerful lobbyists, who is closely associated with the ALP, argues that prime ministers and premiers should pick up to one-fifth of cabinet from outside parliament.
Bruce Hawker will tell a Brisbane audience today that the parliamentary ``gene pool'' is shrinking and no longer represents society's best and brightest.
The one-time chief of staff to former NSW premier Bob Carr says that in 1971 only 24 per cent of federal Labor MPs had come directly from an ALP or union job, but in 2005 the proportion had grown to 67 per cent.
``A shrinking group of people (is) determining who our parliamentarians will be and they are less representative of the broader community than at any time in living memory,'' says the principal of lobbyists Hawker Britton.
``I can see very little wrong and a lot of good in a system which would allow the prime minister or premiers to appoint, say, 20 per cent of their ministry from outside parliament.
``I would advocate a system which allows the parliamentary leader to make those appointments to the upper house -- except Queensland (which does not have an upper house), where the appointments, by necessity, would be to the assembly.''
Mr Hawker links the narrowing of the talent pool to a lack of trust between citizens and their elected representatives.
