Political lobbyists and corporate representatives with privileged access to Parliament House will be publicly identified under a major overhaul of the parliamentary pass system, ending decades of secrecy around who can roam the building’s private corridors.
Bureaucrats and party representatives have been briefed on a package of reforms expected to be adopted over the next two years, including the creation of a public online register of sponsored pass-holders and new disclosure requirements for business representatives granted unescorted access to ministerial and MPs’ offices.
The changes emerge amid pressure from independent MPs and senators to increase transparency around sponsored access. More than 2050 sponsored “orange” passes were active as of mid-2024, covering a broad range of visitors including paid lobbyists, business representatives, non-government organisations and volunteers.
These passes grant holders virtually unfettered access in the building, allowing them to knock on any door in parliament and show up, often unannounced, to advocate for themselves or on behalf of the organisation or client they represent.
Under the proposal, parliamentary pass-holders would face restricted out-of-hours access and require sponsorship from two MPs, reviving a system used in previous years. The names of sponsoring parliamentarians would also be displayed on the front of access passes.
Sources with knowledge of the plan – granted anonymity to speak about confidential discussions – said corporate pass-holders would face an annual fee of about $100 and have their name, employer and sponsoring MPs published on a new parliamentary website.
However, sources said, representatives from community groups and not-for-profit organisations would be subject to a different standard. While their organisations and sponsoring MPs would be disclosed publicly, individual names would not appear on the register.
The distinction is likely to spark debate among corporate groups, with those familiar with the reforms observing that a chief executive from a major company would be publicly named while representatives from activist organisations such as, for example, Extinction Rebellion or Australia Palestine Advocacy Network would not.
Labor has argued previously that the publication of the pass-holder database risked exposing marginalised and stigmatised communities to unwelcome attention and politicising the relationships between parliamentarians and advocates, whistleblowers and constituents.
While the federal lobbyist register discloses the names and clients of registered lobbyists, it does not reveal who holds a parliamentary access pass or which MPs have sponsored them.
The system has long attracted criticism from integrity advocates and crossbench MPs because the identities of pass holders and the parliamentarians who sponsor them are generally not publicly available.
The planned register would represent the most significant transparency measure introduced since independent ACT senator David Pocock launched his own public database of sponsored pass-holders last year, challenging MPs to reveal whom they had granted privileged access. The measure would counter his private website, which has infuriated many MPs who have been subjected to mass email campaigns about transparency through some of its functions.
It follows the intervention of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who in March asked parliament’s presiding officers to strengthen oversight of sponsored pass-holders as part of a scheduled review of the access policy.
In a letter to Speaker Milton Dick and Senate President Sue Lines, Albanese argued that unescorted access to Parliament House was a “privilege” and called for greater “transparency and rigour”, particularly for professional lobbyists.
Lines told Senate estimates last month the review was “looking at all categories of pass-holders”; Department of Parliament Services head Jaala Hinchcliffe said a security management committee was “taking the lead on that piece of work”.
“We’ll take into account the security aspects, we’ll take into account the requirements of the different pass types and we’ll also look at other examples as we go through that work,” she said.
Two years ago, a Senate inquiry found the process for obtaining sponsored parliamentary passes was “not entirely transparent” and that existing arrangements made it impossible to determine the scale of lobbyist access to parliament.
The committee found very little was publicly known about the almost 2000 holders of sponsored passes who had regular access to the building’s private areas.
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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.