Extensive reforms needed to curb corporate power in Australian politics, human rights group says

Lobbying, political donations and public campaigns work together to exert ‘a huge amount of political power’, an HRLC lawyer says. Photograph: Krystle Wright/The Guardian

Sweeping reforms of campaign finance and lobbying laws are needed to end corporate influence over Australian politics that would be regarded as illegal and corrupt overseas, the Human Rights Law Centre says.

In a new report titled Selling Out, the HRLC takes aim at three industries – fossil fuels, gambling and tobacco – that it claims are distorting Australia’s democracy through political donations, lobbying and public attack campaigns.