Big government, big opportunity for rent-seekers – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
The more a government does, the more opportunities are presented for rent-seeking. Rent-seekers thrive in the minutiae of policy detail, writes Chris Berg.
In the 2012-13 financial year, the Australian Labor Party received $55 million in donations. The Liberals received $73 million. The Greens and the Nationals attracted around $8 million each.
Name a large corporate in Australia and their name is almost certainly somewhere on the Australian Electoral Commission’s donations register. Lots of firms even donate to both sides. And of course the Labor Party has a healthy union donor base as well.
But that’s only a fraction of the total amount of money spent on trying to influence government. Federally, Australia has 590 registered individual lobbyists representing 1,708 corporate and non-profit clients.
Then there’s all the money firms spend lobbying with their in-house government affairs staff (who don’t show up on the lobbyists register).
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