MPs hand Woodside and betting lobby permanent passes into parliament

Australia's biggest fossil fuel players and the lobby shop for online gambling giants now have a permanent foothold inside Parliament House, and MPs signed off on it. The first release of the new sponsored pass register, published Tuesday, laid out who vouched for whom — but only partly. More than 1,000 applications are still backlogged, so the picture is nowhere near complete.

Woodside Energy, the country's largest fossil fuel company, holds three access cards. Labor's Meryl Swanson, Glenn Sterle and Tracey Roberts sponsored them, along with Coalition MPs Melissa Price, Rick Wilson and Susan McDonald. The Minerals Council of Australia also has passes, signed by McDonald, Coalition frontbenchers Angie Bell, Matt O'Sullivan and Ted O'Brien, and Labor's Dan Repacholi.

ConocoPhillips, the American oil and gas giant, got its access through Nationals MP Colin Boyce and Labor's Mike Freelander. Gas lobby group Australian Energy Producers is sponsored by David Smith. Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan backs Alinta Energy. And shadow health minister Anne Ruston and Labor's Raff Ciccone are primary sponsors of two passes for Responsible Wagering Australia, which speaks for bet365, Sportsbet and Betfair. Its chief lobbyist, Kai Cantwell, once worked as a staffer for Ruston.

The new rules demand two MPs sponsor a lobbyist to score a pass — a system meant to drag a murky corner of Canberra into the light. Until now, the 2,000-plus people holding access to the building did so without any public transparency, a gripe long voiced by ACT independent David Pocock. House speaker Milton Dick and Senate president Sue Lines reviewed the private-areas access policies, and in March Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flagged the need for more transparency and rigour.

Other names on the register: prominent lobbyist Ben Oquist, a former Greens staffer and husband of Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, sponsored by energy minister Chris Bowen and industry minister Tim Ayres. Greens leader David Shoebridge sponsors the Australian Peace and Security Forum, a non-profit helping lead a public inquiry into the Aukus defence pact. Pocock sponsors the Australian Construction Industry Forum, Bees and Blossoms, Queensland University of Technology and Chanel Contos's Teach Us Consent Global. The Pharmacy Guild has two passes, signed by Labor's Gordon Reid, Anne Urquhart, Repacholi and Josh Dolega.

Transparency campaigners at the Australian Democracy Network aren't impressed. The group says as many as 80% of registered lobbyists are still missing from the register, and flags flaws in the separate lobbyists register run by the Attorney-General's Department. Spokesman Christian Slattery said the partial disclosure covers roughly 10% of existing passes, leaving Australians without the full picture, and argued the system reveals little about who MPs meet, when, or why. He wants national lobbying laws and a dedicated regulator. Journalists, meanwhile, still need a bureau chief or editor plus endorsement from the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Committee to get through the doors.