As a Victorian public sector employee, lobbyists may contact you to influence Government decisions.
When a lobbyist contacts you because of your role, you have obligations under the:
When a lobbyist contacts you, you must behave in line with the public sector values in the Code of Conduct.
You must also comply with your organisation’s relevant policies, including those on probity and grants.
Relevant values and behaviours from the Code of Conduct include:
Integrity
Impartiality
Accountability
You must check if a lobbyist or Government Affairs Director is on the Lobbyists and government affairs director register before you meet with them. This will assure you of their credentials.
If they are not on the register, you cannot meet them until they are registered.
If a lobbyist contacts you and isn’t on the register, email [email protected] to advise that a lobbyist tried to meet with you but wasn’t registered.
To check if someone is a lobbyist, you can also check their company website.
Their website may advertise services like government relations or public affairs. It may also have a list of clients or note the former political affiliations of its staff. Having this information on their website suggests its employees are likely lobbyists.
If you want to check if a lobbyist is registered but can’t access the Lobbyists and government affairs director register email [email protected].
You can only meet with a person who says they’re a lobbyist after they confirm:
Lobbyists must provide you with the above information under the Lobbyist Code. These requirements help transparent and well-informed decision making.
Lobbyists must behave in line with the Lobbyist Code of Conduct.
They have a duty to be ethical, transparent and act to the highest standards of professional conduct in line with probity requirements.
This helps to uphold public expectations of transparency, integrity and honesty.
You must not engage with lobbyists when they’re involved in a government tender process.
Buying for Victoria’s how to plan for probity says all buyers must provide the same information to all suppliers, be fair and not preference any bidder.
This means if you engaged with lobbyists during a government tender process, you may give the lobbyist’s clients an advantage and have a conflict of interest.
You must not discuss information you’re not authorised to disclose.
This includes:
Lobbying activity means any contact (including telephone contact, electronic mail contact, written mail contact, or face-to-face meetings) with a Government Representative in an effort to influence Government decision making, including the making or amendment of legislation, the development or amendment of a Government policy or program, the awarding of a Government contract or grant or the allocation of funding.
Under the Lobbyist Code, a lobbyist is a person, company or organisation who works on behalf of a third-party client to influence government outcomes.
Lobbyists seek to influence public sector employees or politicians to support an outcome favourable to their third-party client.
Government affairs directors have a paid role to do the same kind of work as lobbyists in either:
To keep it simple in this guide, we refer to government affairs directors as lobbyists.
A person, company or organisation is not a lobbyist if they act on their own behalf, rather than a client, to influence government outcomes.
A lobbyist doesn’t include:
Lobbyists try to influence favourable outcomes on government decisions like:
But lobbying activities don’t include things like:
A lobbyist might try to engage with you if you work in the following areas:
As a public sector employee, you’re not obliged to meet with a lobbyist unless you’re lawfully directed to do so.
If you’re unsure what to do, speak to your manager or direct the enquiry to [email protected].
You can become a lobbyist when you leave the public sector, with some restrictions if you were an executive.
For 12 months after you leave your employment as an executive, you must not engage in lobbying activities on any matters you had official dealings with. This is to prevent a conflict of interest.