‘Bleak’: No work for Liberal lobbyists because Labor keeps winning

“It’s a fairly bleak scene for a company like ours that lobbies and is in the ascension when there are Coalition governments. We’ve had 12 very good years.”

Both Barton Deakin and Hawker Britton were high-profile fixtures in John Singleton’s STW Group, which merged with WPP in 2016, with the lobbying outfits often swapping clients according to the state or federal electoral cycle.

But successive Labor wins have hit Barton Deakin’s client list. The group’s NSW office deregistered more than 40 clients in April alone, including Apple, Ausgrid, Australia Post and Expedia.

Unique business model

“There’s no national secrets around it, it’s just the political cycle,” managing director and former NSW MP Andrew Humpherson, told The Australian Financial Review.

He has also resigned and will finish in June.

“It’s a unique business model which works well but when the cycle goes against you, like political staff or a political office, you wind up and wind back and wait for the tide to rise,” he said.

The uncertainty at the outfit comes amid a major shake-up in government relations and staffing circles triggered by Labor’s 2022 federal election win and victory in the NSW state election in March, which cemented Labor’s hold with wall-to-wall red governments across the mainland.

The NSW Labor government has been on a mission to attract experienced employees at a time when the bulk of the state’s Labor staffers are ensconced in federal government positions.

Liberal powerbroker Michael Photios’ PremierNational government relations group took on former Labor minister Graham Richardson and former Palaszczuk and Albanese government staffer Tom Kenny in late 2022.

Sydney-based Cornerstone has also hired Daniel Hoare, a former chief of staff to Victorian roads minister Luke Donnellan, to sit inside a stable which includes former Liberal minister Craig Laundy and former federal Labor leader Simon Crean.

Hawker Britton director Simon Banks, who also sits on a joint board above the twin government relations groups, said the downturn was predictable but admitted it had hit rival Barton Deakin hard.

“It’s a yin and yang effect, with a twin firm model when one goes up, the other one inevitably goes down, and we’ve had that cycle a number of times ... I remember we had hard years in 2013 [when Labor’s Gillard government lost power] but the political wheel always turns,” Mr Banks said.

“We shrunk down to just three directors, it’s a normal part of the business cycle.”

The veteran strategist said Hawker Britton was in “growth mode”, which is likely to continue given there is no state election until Queensland goes to the polls in October 2024, almost 18 months away.