Barton Deakin

Barton Deakin is an Australian government relations and lobbying firm. The firm is openly partisan and works only with Coalition governments and oppositions and employs staff with ties to the Liberal Party of Australia, National Party of Australia and their state affiliates.

The company is believed to have the broadest reach of any Coalition-aligned lobbying firm in Australia.^[1] The firm has permanent offices in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.^[2] It is touted as the largest firm in federal government lobbying in Australia after an increase in client and staff, particularly following the Coalition's 2013 Federal Election win.^[3][4] Barton Deakin is majority owned by the STW Group,^[5] the ASX-listed parent company of more than 75 communications firms in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

The company is known for its high profile staff, which include former politicians, political Chiefs of Staff, advisors and tacticians. Barton Deakin is also well known for their briefs on Australian and New Zealand policy and government issues, which are distributed several times a week.^[6]

Current staff

The firm's Chairman is former New South Wales Treasurer and Liberal Leader, Peter Collins. Collins has been named as one of the most prominent Liberal Party identities working in the government relations industry in Australia.^[7]

The CEO and Managing Director is Matthew Hingerty, former Chief of Staff to Minister George Souris in the O'Farrell Government. He was also Chief of Staff to Joe Hockey as minister in the Howard Government, an advisor to Peter Collins as Opposition leader and to new South Wales Premier John Fahey and to several ministers throughout the Greiner-Fahey governments. Hingerty was also formerly the Managing Director of the Australian Tourism Export Council.^[8][9][10]

Barton Deakin's Canberra office is co-headed by Grahame Morris^[11] and David Alexander. Morris was formerly Chief of Staff to Prime Minister John Howard, and prior to that was an advisor to Liberal Leaders Andrew Peacock and Alexander Downer. Morris is a former journalist with The Australian and a well recognised media commentator and political tactician, appearing as a weekly panellist on Sky News Australia's PM Agenda program, on radio, on television shows such as the ABC's Q&A,^[12] and is often quoted in the print media.^[13][14][15] David Alexander was formerly a senior advisor to Peter Costello as treasurer and was part of the Tax Reform Implementation Unit, which oversaw the implementation of the GST.^[16][17][18] Alexander was also formerly the economics editor of the Canberra Times and continues to provide media commentary.^[19][20]

Well-known political figure, John Griffin, manages the firm's Victorian and South Australian clients. Griffin was formerly Chief of Staff to Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett and Senior Private Secretary to John Hewson, working alongside Tony Abbott.^[21]

The Brisbane office is co-headed by former Brisbane Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson and former Young Liberals President, Gerard Paynter. Atkinson was Lord Mayor during a period of extensive growth, including through World Expo 88, which is often credited as a "coming of age" event that transformed and repositioned Brisbane during the late 1980s.^[22] Paynter provides media commentary on the Queensland Government.^[23][24] Paynter previously worked as a stockbroker for Ord Minnett,^[25] where he provided stock market commentary through Boardroom Radio.^[26]

Eacham Curry heads the firm's Western Australia office. Curry served as Chief of Staff in the Howard Government and also in the Barnett Government.^[27] He has held senior roles within the Liberal Party Federal Secretariat and ran as a Liberal Party candidate for Albert Park at the 1996 Victorian State Election. Anthony Benscher, former Chief of Staff to New South Wales minister Pru Goward, was appointed in the latter-half of 2013 as Managing Director of Barton Deakin's Sydney office.^[28] Benscher was also a senior advisor to John Howard from 1993 to 2000, and was a senior executive at Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL).^[29][30][31]

Barton Deakin's website,^[32] shows that the company employs a number of other political figures and former Coalition staffers.

Former staff

Barton Deakin's former Queensland Managing Director, Ted O'Brien, left the firm to run for preselection for the Liberal National Party (LNP) in the Division of Fairfax in 2012, and was subsequently preselected as the LNP's Candidate for the 2013 Federal Election.^[33][34] The contest for Fairfax shot to national prominence when billionaire and mining magnate, Clive Palmer, announced that he would set up his own political party (the Palmer United Party) and would personally run in the division of Fairfax.^[35] Palmer backed the decision with a high-spending advertising campaign, both in the division of Fairfax and for his party nationally.^[36] In comparison, O'Brien was described as a low-key candidate.^[37] The division remained in the national spotlight in the weeks following the 7 September 2013 election, as it became the final seat in the House of Representatives left in contention. More than 3 weeks after the election, just 7 votes separated Palmer and O'Brien at the end of the first full round of counting, despite almost 90,000 votes being cast and counted.^[38] The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that the very tight result would trigger a full recount to determine who would be the next Member for Fairfax.^[39][40] On 3 October 2013, the official recount began.^[41] It was finalised on 31 October 2013 almost 2 months after the election, with Palmer declared as the winner by 53 votes making it the most marginal seat in Australian parliament.^[42]

Another former Barton Deakin staff member, Lucy Wicks, also ran for office at the 2013 Federal Election.^[43] Wicks won the New South Wales seat of Robertson with a swing of 4 per cent and holds the seat with a 3 per cent margin.^[44]

Controversy

"Cow" comment

Barton Deakin's Federal Director, Grahame Morris, landed himself in hot water in August 2012 for remarks he made on-air on 702 ABC Sydney in relation to a television interview of Tony Abbott by Leigh Sales the night earlier on 7.30. "Well, Leigh can be a real cow sometimes when she's doing interviews," Morris said.^[45]

The comment triggered public complaints for sexism, especially on Twitter. The situation was exacerbated when a British MP with the same name - Grahame Morris - mistakenly received emails and Tweets aimed at the Australian Grahame Morris.^[46] Leigh Sales responded to Morris' comment on Twitter, saying she would "rather be a cow than a dinosaur".^[47] Morris later apologised for the comment, stating that a more appropriate expression would have been something like, "Having known most of the senior journalists, and in particular the political journalists over the last 30 years, there are people who can be tough... [and] Leigh, at times, can be tough."^[48][49]

"Kicking her to death" comment

Grahame Morris was criticised for his remarks in the media again in early 2012 when, during a regular appearance on Sky News Australia's PM Agenda program, he said that Australians "ought to be kicking [Prime Minister Julia Gillard] to death." The comment was made in relation to Gillard's support of two MPs accused of improper and illegal conduct - Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper. Morris later apologised for the comment.^[50]

Queensland Government and lobbyists

Barton Deakin's Queensland office was in the media in early 2013 in relation to a lunch they hosted in mid 2012 which the then Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, Ros Bates, attended as a guest. The minister was criticised in an article published in the Sunday Mail on 10 February for not declaring the lunch as a "contact with lobbyists", which the publication claimed contravened Queensland lobbying regulations.^[51] Soon after, Barton Deakin released a statement confirming that Bates had attended a lunch that they hosted, but stated that no lobbying had occurred at the event.^[52] After initially refusing to comment, Bates defended her decision not to declare the lunch, saying that she had received confirmation from the Integrity Commissioner that attending lunches did not constitute lobbying.^[53] She was backed by Premier Campbell Newman, who said he believed she had not broken the law and that he still had full confidence in her as minister.^[54][55] Despite this, on 15 February 2013, Ros Bates resigned as minister citing poor health and the pressure her family had experienced as a result of a series of controversies and adverse media attention.^[56][57]

References