Parliament House Pass System Overhaul to Boost Transparency

Political lobbyists with unfettered access to the halls of Parliament House – and the MPs who sponsor their passes – will soon be publicly identified in an online register, under a major shake-up of the pass system.

Under the new rules, two MPs will need to sign for a lobbyist to register for a pass, with the primary sponsor responsible for their behaviour. It will also introduce fees for lobbyist and commercial passes.

A letter, seen by Guardian Australia, will be distributed to federal parliamentarians on Thursday morning detailing the new rules.

The changes drastically increase the transparency of the pass system, under which the public currently has no knowledge of who sponsored a lobbyist pass, or how many passes an MP has sponsored.

There were more than 2,050 sponsored passes for access to Parliament House as of mid-2024. It’s unknown how many of those were held by paid lobbyists.

The review of the policies governing access to the building’s private areas was conducted by the House speaker, Milton Dick and Senate president, Sue Lines. The prime minister wrote to them in March ahead of the review, and suggested greater “transparency and rigour” of sponsored passholders.

In their letter to parliamentarians, Dick and Lines said they were committed to “maintaining the democratic openness of Parliament House, while ensuring that access to the private areas is appropriately managed, transparent, and aligned with community expectations”.

“The revised policy strengthens the transparency and oversight of access passes issued to individuals who have privileged access to Parliament House,” the letter states.

Their review has also determined new categories for sponsored passes - with political lobbyists to remain with orange passes, while commercial representatives and advocacy and community groups are to apply for light blue passes.

Commercial and community passes will now include the organisation and names of the sponsoring MPs, individual names will not appear on the register.

Access passes for former parliamentarians from states and territory legislatures will be now be restricted to former premiers, chief ministers and ministers.

Visitors with orange passes currently have rights to unescorted access to the non-public areas of Parliament House, allowing them to roam freely in the corridors of MPs’ offices.

Sponsored passholders will no longer have access to the building on weekends, or between 11pm and 5am. The rules will also introduce sanctions for non-compliance with the conditions.