Show Notes
What counts as ‘lobbying’? That’s the central question at the core of the Australian Parliament Sports Club saga, the company organising social sport at Parliament House — paid for by sponsors, who in turn get to play alongside politicians and political staffers, building vital relationships during sitting weeks.
According to the government’s definition, the Club is not a lobbying organisation and has been removed from the lobbyists register. CEO of the Club Andy Turnbull provided Crikey with a lengthy statement defending his operation… after kicking out former Wallabies captain and Senator David Pocock for questioning the legitimacy of the Club at senate estimates.
So does it pass the pub test? Crikey’s media reporter Daanyal Saeed joins the podcast to unpack the Parliament Sports Club lobbying saga, from beginning to end.
Read more: Australian Parliament Sports Club de-registered as lobby group amid MP outrage (including Andy Turnbull’s full statement to Crikey) The gambling lobby has infiltrated social sports at Parliament House Gambling not as serious as cigarettes, PM’s adviser tells reform advocates On gambling, Australia is a collection of banana republics — while our cowering government watches on
Sign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletter
Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Cut Through
With the fragmentation and loss of belief in the Liberal Party, the future of liberalism itself these days doesn’t look bright. But what would a “post-liberal” world look like?
Parliament is back in session, and there’s a new Greens leader on the scene to cause trouble for Anthony Albanese. Crikey’s politics reporter Anton Nilsson and journalist Tina Quinn discuss how Labor’s agenda is holding up against attacks from all sides.
In a special Q&A episode of Cut Through, Rachel puts your questions to long-time Crikey contributors, climate analyst Ketan Joshi and Dr Ben Eltham, about the unfortunate topic de jour: the rapid proliferation of data centres. What are they? Do we actually need them? And what is the benefit — if any — of having them operate on Australian soil?
It’s been a busy month for our tips hog, Cochon Truffier. The intrepid pig snooped out some internal discussions between NACC staffers which probably should have been had at the pub, investigated the backlash to Mia Freedman’s comments about the Ed Sheeran/Macklemore saga, and dug into why student politicians at Sydney Uni were getting their knickers in a knot over allegations involving horse meat and bribery in Kazakhstan.
Paul Keating was prime minister of a very different Australia, in a very different geopolitical environment from that of today. How does his ambition for Australia hold up 30 years later? Crikey politics editor Bernard Keane and Professor James Curran from the University of Sydney discuss Keating’s legacy, and whether his approach to foreign policy suffered from the curse of being “right, but too early”.