The Herald Sun, Steve Lewis, 30/4/2008

KEVIN Rudd's election commitment to squeaky clean government is under challenge, amid high-level calls to broaden a scheme regulating lobbyists.

Leading lobbying firms, representing businesses worth billions of dollars, have called on the Government to include accounting and legal firms in the new scheme.

One lobbyist has even labelled the scheme "undemocratic'', amid concerns political fixers will be able to roam the corridors of Parliament without scrutiny.

Industry leaders, including Gavin Anderson, Government Relations Australia and Labor's preferred lobbyist Hawker Britton, have called for legal firms, such as Freehills, and accountants, such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, to be locked into the scheme.

But John Howard's former chief of staff, Grahame Morris, a senior adviser to PWC, warned the scheme would become "meaningless'' if the Government buckles.

The draft scheme was released for comment earlier this month. It was designed to prevent rogue lobbyists, such as disgraced former WA Premier Brian Burke, from plying their trade in Canberra.

It also gives Cabinet Secretary John Faulkner new powers to deregister lobbyists, effectively removing their right to work in Canberra's competitive environment.

Bruce Hawker, managing director of Hawker Britton, said a flaw in the scheme is that legal and accounting firms will be able to "escape the provisions of the register and the spirit of the new arrangements''.

"If they are lobbying the Government on behalf of a third party, they should be under the same strictures as any professional lobbying firm,'' Mr Hawker said.

Long-time lobbyist Colin Parks, from Gavin Anderson, said it was well known that accounting and legal firms lobbied on behalf of their clients.

"We regularly run into representatives of legal and accounting firms in Parliament House,'' Mr Parks said.

"Lawyers and accountants should be registered as lobbyists.''

Another lobbyist, former Howard Government adviser Ian Hanke, has written to every minister, slamming the draft scheme as "flawed, contradictory and undemocratic''.

Mr Hanke argues it will create "two classes of lobbyists''.

"Denying access to Ministers at a whim, while according it to others, is a travesty of democratic principles,'' Mr Hanke said.

But Mr Morris, head of PWC's federal government services group, cautioned against broadening the scheme.

"If they are going to include people like accountants and lawyers, then they would have to include anyone who deals with government at any stage,'' he said.