Lobbyists have taken advantage of the orange access passes to Parliament House, which allow them to roam the building freely.
Thousands of people have held sponsored passes to Parliament House — the kind issued to lobbyists — in recent years but the public isn’t entitled to know which MPs signed off on them.
The orange passes allow holders to roam the building freely and visit politicians’ offices unannounced. The politician who signed off on the most passes in this Parliament has sponsored 55 of them. The parliamentarian’s identity is a secret, and it isn’t even known if they are an MP or a senator.
Sixteen crossbenchers have signed off on a push by independent ACT Senator David Pocock to force politicians to disclose who is granting access to whom.
Keep reading about the push for transparency in Parliament.
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