GRA leads new lobbyists ranking

Lobbyists are usually quick to acknowledge the reputational damage to the business that resulted from several high-profile, unsavoury past practices and dealings.

In Western Australia, the profession became closely associated with Brian Burke, Noel Crichton-Browne, and Julian Grill, three men whose work on behalf of the likes of Fortescue Metals Group and Macquarie Bank in the 2000s formed the basis of multiple high-profile Corruption and Crime Commission investigations.

They, in turn, formed the political underpinnings of former premier Alan Carpenter’s decision to institute a state-based lobbyist register, which, when introduced in March 2007, was first-in-class for Australia.

At the time of the register’s creation, no other state provided as much transparency on the profession as WA, despite industry bodies, unions and in-house lobbyists largely left untouched by what Mr Carpenter at the time described as deliberately minimal regulation.

What was once a feature of the register has since become a noticeable gap, with WA falling behind NSW and Queensland on the strength of its regulatory muscle in the past decade.

Those states, forced to act by respective state and local government scandals, have cracked down on the lack of transparency that has come to define lobbying, requiring the publication of ministers’ diaries, contact registers and high-frequency disclosure obligations to head off any suggestions of impropriety.

In the case of NSW, these changes have done little to quell demands from the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption that regulation be expanded to cover lobbying beyond the consultants currently subject to oversight.

Still, even if WA’s register lacks the depth of others, it readily reveals who is being contracted as a lobbyist and the companies and individuals paying for these services.

Better yet, the register requires firms to disclose their ownership structure, which for many firms has changed significantly in the past decade as once-dominant local firms such as PPR and CPR Communications have folded and global names including WPP, SEC and Clemenger Group have picked up market share.

Behind closed doors, many in the industry are generally supportive of the register but admit the laxness with which some firms treat it – either by failing to delete clients from the list when they aren’t being actively serviced, or arbitrarily registering staff as lobbyists – can obscure the full picture of the most successful firms.

Others criticise the glut of registered firms and sole traders without active clients, as well as dozens of Canberra-based firms that sign up to the WA register despite not having an active office or lobbyist in WA.

Based on that information and wider research, Business News has overhauled its lobbying database to quantify the reach and influence of WA’s consultant lobbying firms.

Unsurprisingly, the pointy end of the list is dominated by firms boasting a global equity partner, with GRA Partners the top-ranked firm by both registered lobbyists and clients.

GRA Partners is partially owned by GRACosway, a NSW-based outfit with a national presence and owned by marketing and advertising agency proprietor Clemenger Group.

The firm was formerly led by Liberal Party (WA) state director Paul Everingham, who has recently retired from his role leading the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia and counts former treasurer Eric Ripper as chair and equity partner.

GRA’s dominance follows a decade of consolidation in the industry, during which PPR, which topped the list as recently as 2014 with 10 registered lobbyists in WA, was downsized and its clients reassigned following a merger between equity partner WPP AUNZ and STW Communications in the mid-2010s.

Its successor, BCW, is no longer on the list but maintains an office on Wellington Street.

CPR Communications & Public Relations, which formerly had current cabinet ministers Roger Cook and Stephen Dawson on its payroll, has also fallen off the list, following a significant reduction in its local presence early in the 2000s.

Notable, too, is that most firms at the top end of the list have embraced a multidisciplinary approach in recent years by facilitating investor and public relations divisions in addition to government lobbying.

Cannings Purple, which ranks third on the list and is part of the WPP group, is a prime example of this dynamic.

Established as a public relations firm in the mid-2000s, Cannings has since become one of the biggest consultancy firms in the state, with the hiring of former journalist, Labor adviser and state political candidate Karen Brown beefing up its government relations services in 2014.

Its government relations division is led by former business journalist Michael Cairnduff.

Jason Marocchi, a former political adviser to Colin Barnett and managing director of GRA Partners, told Business News it made sense for firms to diversify, given how modest the return on lobbying could be in WA.

“We’re a very mature government relations firm, but there’s only so much lobbying you can do in a small market like Perth,” Mr Marocchi said.

“The real growth for us is in corporate and financial communications.”

That’s evidenced by the firm’s expansion into investor relations, having hired former Sydney-based Nine Entertainment journalist Luke Forrestal, as well as its embrace of corporate communications, which has largely been driven by strategic adviser Stacey Malloy.

Still, as Mr Marocchi admits, the quality of the firm’s political connections is what keeps the lights on.

“We need to ensure we maintain a premium product in the government relations space and grow the other side of the business at the same time as ensuring we don’t dilute our key service,” he said.

Not surprisingly, political ties and a government background are a strong indicator of prominence on the list.

Daniel Smith, who worked as a staffer to Mr Carpenter and directed Labor’s campaign at the 2017 state election, is among the most notable top players.

Mr Smith founded CGM Communications (as Campaign Capital) shortly after leaving CPR Communications and Public Relations in the early 2010s.

CGM has climbed the rankings in recent years, with former communications professional Anthony Fisk coming on board as equity partner in 2018.

While Mr Smith’s background is in government relations, he’s a strong proponent of the integrated model, chalking that up to CPR having pursued a similar direction towards the end of his tenure at the firm.

“My feeling was other players in the market were successful but single offering shops,” Mr Smith told Business News.

“Some firms just offered purely government relations, and called themselves that, some firms were purely investor relations, some firms were purely media, and community engagement was an evolving thing then but was generally done by planners, engineering companies and the like.

“As we’ve grown our diversified offering it’s been interesting to watch others diversify their offering, too, and I like to think we’ve led that.”

Still, government relations remain a core part of the business, with former trade commissioner Stuart Crockett returning to the fold recently following a brief stint as acting chief executive of Perth Racing.

Prominent gender equality advocate Libby Lyons, who was a rumoured replacement for Christian Porter in the seat of Pearce late last year, has also come aboard, however, she will not begin working as a registered lobbyist until April due to cooling off requirements under the state’s lobbying laws.

Federal changes

While the Business News database concerns state government lobbyists, at least two changes at a federal level may yet affect how some firms do business in WA.

Most obviously, a change in government portends new opportunities for firms with ties to Labor if, as recent polling suggests, the Liberal-National coalition loses the May federal election.

On policy, a change in government may also affect the regulatory framework to which lobbyists adhere, with Labor and a glut of independent candidates calling for the creation of an anti-corruption commission.

While the federal government had pledged to legislate for a federal ICAC during its current term, the model proposed by former attorney-general Christian Porter and his successor, Michaelia Cash, was notable in that it would not be able to launch its own investigations and would not have retrospective investigative powers.

All state-based anti-corruption commissions have the authority to do both, and federal Labor has stated its support for a commission with those powers.

Political support for federal legislation is mixed, with moderate Tasmania MP Bridget Archer and retiring NSW MP John Alexander among those to voice support for its creation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously said he supports a commission being created but has tempered his stance in recent months after former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian was forced to resign following public hearings held by that state’s ICAC.

By contrast, independent MP Helen Haines and Senator Rex Patrick’s model would have been far more expansive than the federal government’s proposal and would have broadly mirrored state-based institutions in allowing for public hearings and effectively acting as a standing royal commission.

WA is already serviced by its own Corruption and Crime Commission, which was established because of high-profile controversies associated with state government lobbying.

Neither a change in government nor increased oversight at a federal level seemed to concern those who spoke with Business News for this article.

Peter Harris, who worked as an adviser to Richard Court’s government in the 1990s and is now chair of The 500 Club, explained that political connections and having access to ministers wasn’t as important as being familiar with the processes.

Mr Harris said his affiliations hadn’t thrown up any hurdles to meetings with current state government ministers.

“Our job is about unpacking the issue, simplifying it … to the point that a minister, a senior adviser, or staff members in an agency can clearly understand what the point is the client is trying to change or impact,” he said.

CGM’s Mr Smith didn’t talk down the importance of political relationships but emphasised that a good understanding of policy direction was equally useful.

Further to that, he argued that engaging with both major parties helped establish networks within government and opposition and expressed caution about maintaining connections with just one side of politics.

“A number of the clients we work with put a lot of work into preparing for a Shorten government going into the 2019 election,” Mr Smith said.

“Often, we’d say, ‘Look, Labor may not get elected’.

“We were quite cautious in that regard, and we were advising clients to prepare for both outcomes.”

Asked about his thoughts on the introduction of a federal anti-corruption commission, Mr Smith acknowledged WA’s CCC was created in part to respond to controversies in the industry but argued this was a product of certain events in this state that didn’t broadly represent government relations work.

Mr Smith said he was unbothered by the potential for a federal ICAC.

“In the work that we do, we work closely with businesses and all sorts of organisations to identify what they want to do, to identify how it overlaps with government policy, to build a strong story, to build stakeholder support and take that to government,” he said.

“It doesn’t involve anything, from my perspective, that any corruption commission would have any interest in.”

Mr Marocchi was similarly indifferent at the prospect of a federal anti-corruption body.

“If the federal government moves to an ICAC, as a profession [I’m sure] the industry body [will] have some views on how it should be structured, but I don’t lose any sleep over that,” he said.