Business lobbyists around the country are now realising that, at least in the short term, they will need to modify their approach, particularly to ministers.
The coalition has been chewing up leaders, and any organisation that does that faces the danger of a long time in the wilderness.
Most lobbyists try to get their client before the relevant federal or state minister, but that strategy now looks very dangerous, particularly if the business person knows the minister. Wayne Swan found, when he alerted the public servants to the position of the Queensland car dealer, that his correspondence was suddenly shown up in a most unfavourable light. That will make all ministers very nervous.
Yet this is a silly development. The only way ministers can understand what is happening in their area is to meet people and ask questions. Once lobbying goes back to putting cases before public servants, then the minister becomes isolated from the decision-making process.
Accordingly, I don’t think we are looking at a long-run change. But it will have an impact in the next few months. Public servants will be more powerful.
When the coalition lost the last election, they had three top potential leaders: Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Costello. Nelson was voted out, Costello is leaving the parliament and Turnbull now has a lot of weight in the saddlebag.
Turnbull’s mistake was a trap many journalists fall into. He had information from a person who had been an excellent source in the past – so he believed it and went in hard. The information was wrong. In the journalistic world, when you make a mistake like that you eat humble pie.
In politics, that is much harder. Meanwhile, no organisation can go through three leadership aspirants without facing a long time in the doldrums, so the Liberals have to get in behind Turnbull.
This experience will either break him or fill him with a new determination. There are few precedents in Australia of a business person switching to politics and surviving the blow torch of parliament. But from my knowledge of Malcolm Turnbull, the second outcome (a new determination) is the more likely.
This article first appeared on Business Spectator.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
