Letter

In response to Who is lobbying the Australian government? Most of the industry is hidden from v

Combatting the power of vested interests

Thank you to the ABC ‘4 Corners’ program and the Australian Democracy Network for exposing the inadequate control of corporate lobbying and revolving door jobs in Australia! Together with political donations, these are the principal methods of state capture by vested interests such as the fossil fuel, weapons, gambling and property development industries. It’s time the environmental, social justice, human rights, democracy and peace movements acted together on their common interest in combatting the methods of state capture.

Environment protection groups should support social justice groups, because the rich individuals, rich corporations and rich countries are by far the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts generally. War and the weapons industries have enormous environmental impacts. An alliance between community-based non-government organisations coming from a wide range of environmental and social issues could gain sufficient political and social influence to overcome the power of vested interests and thus strengthen our democratic system.

— Mark Diesendorf from Sydney, Australia