New rules will provide greater transparency of lobbyists and sponsoring MPs at Parliament House. Photo: Andrew McLaughlin.
New rules have been introduced to improve transparency by publicly listing political lobbyists who have access to Parliament House, and their sponsoring MPs.
Under current rules, there is no obligation for MPs to disclose which lobbyists have visited them, nor for lobbyists to detail their visits, nor how many lobbyists an MP may have sponsored in order to obtain a pass.
The new rules mean lobbyists require two MPs to sign their pass register, with the primary sponsor to remain responsible for the lobbyists’ behaviour while in Parliament House. Also, a fee schedule will be introduced for lobbyist and commercial passes.
The changes come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flagged a review of the current system in March, with Speaker Milton Dick and Senate President Sue Lines conducting the review into the coveted ‘’orange pass’’ scheme that had allowed virtually unfettered access to Parliament House.
Crossbenchers led by ACT Senator David Pocock have previously expressed concern about a lack of transparency surrounding lobbyist activities, and have been calling for the identity of passholders and their sponsors to be made publicly available.
During the previous term of parliament, Senator Pocock introduced a private senator’s bill, drafted by the independent Member for Kooyong Monique Ryan, that would expand the definition of “lobbyist” to include in-house lobbyists, industry associations, and consultants with access to decision-makers.
In September 2025, Senator Pocock created an online voluntary register of lobbyist activity and wrote to all parliamentarians, inviting them to voluntarily disclose who they sponsor lobbying passes for.
“Lobbying does have a legitimate role to play in our political system,” he said at the time. “But to protect the strength of our democracy, lobbying needs to be transparent and well regulated.”
The new rules will see lobbyists retain their orange passes and unescorted access, while commercial, advocacy and community representatives will apply for a light-blue pass.
Further, access passes for former parliamentarians from states and territories — many of whom work as lobbyists after they leave politics — will be restricted to former premiers, chief ministers and ministers.
In a letter to parliamentarians, Mr Dick and Senator Lines reportedly committed to “maintaining the democratic openness of Parliament House, while ensuring that access to the private areas is appropriately managed, transparent, and aligned with community expectations”.
“The revised policy strengthens the transparency and oversight of access passes issued to individuals who have privileged access to Parliament House,” they said.
In a statement, Senator Pocock said the rule changes were a “win”.
“I’ve been banging on about the need for lobbying reform because lobbyists have had special passes that let them access virtually all areas of Parliament House 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no way of knowing who they are or who they’re representing,” he said.
“Any parliamentarian can sponsor an unlimited number of passes, and the public had no way of knowing who they were giving access to.
“This lack of transparency makes people question the strength of our democracy. I’ve been pursuing this in the Senate and thousands of you used passregister.com.au to email your MPs demanding reform.
“Today that pressure paid off.
“But the job isn’t done. We still need in-house and third-party rules aligned, the revolving door between government and industry closed and ministerial diaries published.”
In a separate statement, the local arm of global anti-corruption movement Transparency International welcomed the decision to “lift the secrecy” surrounding who has access to orange passes, but warned that the reform leaves the larger weaknesses in federal lobbying rules untouched.
“For years, more than 2000 people have been able to move freely through the private corridors of Parliament House without the public having any way of knowing who they are or who let them in,” the statement reads.
“Publishing the identities of pass holders ends this arrangement, and provides transparency to the key question of who is walking the halls of the people’s house with unfettered access to members of parliament.”
Transparency International Australia CEO Clancy Moore said: “Knowing who has unescorted access to ministers and MPs is the bare minimum the public should expect.
“But access passes are one symptom of a lobbying problem that is still far too easy to game.
“This includes publishing ministers’ diaries, having a three-year cooling-off period to stop ministers parachuting into lobbying jobs when leaving parliament, and making the lobbying register include in-house and industry association lobbyists, not just lobbying firms.”
