Hawker Britton is an Australian public affairs and lobbying firm specialising in government relations, government lobbying and political campaigns. The firm is closely aligned with the Australian Labor Party.[1]
According to the Australian Government Federal Lobbyist Register, it is the largest lobbying firm in Australia by number of clients[2]. The current Managing Director is Justin Di Lollo, a former staffer to Labor leader Kim Beazley[3]
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Hawker Britton was established in 1997 by Bruce Hawker (Chairman) and David Britton. Before starting the company, Bruce Hawker was Chief of Staff to New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, and Britton was Carr's senior media advisor.
According to the firm's website it employs many former Labor Party staffers, MPs and campaign professionals.
Bruce Hawker has been an election campaign strategist in more than 29 Australian, Federal, State and Territory elections[4]. He has been described as a stalwart of Labor campaigning[5] and South Australian Premier Mike Rann described Hawker as “the greatest political strategist in Australia”[5]
Following the hung parliament that resulted after the 2010 Australian federal election campaign Hawker led the negotiations with Independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor which later secured the Labor Government a second term.
Hawker Britton’s Communications Director Eamonn Fitzpatrick, played a key role in Labor’s 2007 NSW State election victory, where he oversaw the NSW Government’s strategic communications and media relations.[6]
Director Simon Banks served as former Labor leader Kevin Rudd’s chief of staff and Federal Labor’s Director of Policy. He managed Labor’s victorious 2007 Kevin07 election campaign.[7]
According to electoral records for the year 2007, Hawker Britton gave $176,648 in political donations to the Australian Labor Party.[8]
Hawker Britton's founders, Bruce Hawker and David Britton, have now both left the company. David Britton left in 2005 to join the Fred Hollows Foundation as its communications director, and Bruce Hawker left in January 2011 to set up a new campaign-focused venture, the Campaigns and Communications Group.
According to the Australian Government Federal Lobbyist Register, Hawker Britton represents the interests of 175 clients, making it the largest lobbying firm in Australia. Clients are in the finance, education, defence, health, IT, retail, energy, and transport sectors.[2]
Hawker Britton has been involved in several nationally significant lobbying campaigns. In 2009, Hawker Britton worked with the Australian Publishers Association to defeat proposed changes to territorial copyright rules that would have scrapped import restrictions on books.[9]
According to a submission filed to the Queensland Government in 2009, 17 per cent of Hawker Britton’s clients are engaged on a pro-bono basis.[10]
In December 2010, Peter Khalil, an Associate of Hawker Britton, was identified in a Wikileaks US State Department leak published in the Sydney Morning Herald as a protected US source.[11]