While there are almost 600 third-party lobbyists registered in Australia -- working for firms and representing a number of clients -- that’s only a part of the lobbying story. That number doesn’t account for unregistered lobbyists.

There are in-house lobbyists (large companies, often multinationals, have their own government relations team, often running into the scores), large industry peak bodies that represent themselves, and law firms, accountancy firms and fund managers that offer their clients, as a sort of side-service, lobbying services as well.