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Australia · Federal
Methodology
How Lobby500 ranks Australia's lobbying and government relations firms.
Last updated: 21 September 2026
What the rankings measure
Lobby500 ranks Australian lobbying and government relations firms on evidence that can be checked, under the same rules for every firm: the client relationships, registered lobbyists and government experience published on the Australian Government Register of Lobbyists. Rankings are recalculated weekly from current and historical records.
Firms are not asked to submit anything. There is no survey, no nomination form and no interview panel. A firm's position is a product of its data. No marketing budget moves a ranking; the least visible firm on the register is measured exactly like the best-known.
The six rankings
| Ranking | Counts | Minimum to qualify |
|---|---|---|
| Market Leaders | Current clients | — |
| Market Expansion | Net change in current clients over 12 months | — |
| Fast Growth | Percentage growth in current clients over 12 months | 5 clients at the start of the period, and positive net growth |
| Sector Leaders | Current clients in a sector | 2 clients in that sector |
| Team Strength | Current registered lobbyists | — |
| Government Experience | Current registered lobbyists recorded as former government representatives | — |
Each ranking lists up to 30 firms. Where firms tie on the ranking measure, the firm with more total clients ranks first, then alphabetically by firm name.
Fast Growth sets a 5-client floor because percentage growth from a very small base overstates movement. One client becoming three is not faster growth than 20 becoming 40.
How Lobby500 checks the data
The register is a filing system, not a dataset. Its function is transparency, not numerical accuracy. Lobby500 collects the register weekly in full, including historical records, then checks it against other public sources before anything is counted.
Where possible, every registered client is matched by ABN to the Australian Business Register, and its status is checked there and against the ASIC company register. Clients confirmed to have ceased operating are removed from client counts. Listing status is checked against the ASX.
Duplicate listings for the same client count once. Where a firm lists itself or a related professional services company as a client, the listing is not counted. Where the register lists a coalition and the members of the coalition separately, the coalition counts as a single client.
A firm's client count on Lobby500 can therefore be lower than its register entry shows. Where the two differ, a check found something the register does not record.
Every client is researched and assigned to one sector, based on its main activity. A client that spans several sectors is assigned to the one that fits it best, not split between them. Lobby500 publishes rankings for 14 sectors.
Firms are recorded as multinational if they operate from, or maintain permanent staff in, at least two countries, or are owned by a foreign parent group. Referral networks, cooperation agreements and international clients do not qualify.
The register is a source. What is published here is not a copy of it. Client counts, sector classifications and growth measures are produced by the many steps described above. A firm's figures on Lobby500 routinely differ from its register entry.
| Register entry | 44Clients |
|---|---|
| Same client listed twice, same ABN | − 1 |
| Same client listed twice, no ABNs recordedABNs found via ABR | − 1 |
| Firm entity listed as own client | − 1 |
| Coalition and its members counted once | − 2 |
| Client no longer tradingASIC | − 1 |
| Counted on Lobby500 | 38Clients |
Which firms qualify
To be ranked, a firm must be currently registered, have at least one current client and one registered lobbyist, and have recorded a client addition or departure in the past 36 months.
The Lobbying Code of Conduct requires registration details to be updated within 10 business days of a change and confirmed twice a year. An entry that has not moved in 36 months is not treated as a current trading record.
Lobby500 also excludes firms without a lobbying, government relations or public affairs practice, including firms where lobbying is incidental to a different specialist service, and firms whose register data is not reliable enough for fair comparison. Exclusions are reconsidered as the data changes.
- Firms currently registeredLast updated 3 October 2026365
- Has a lobbying or government relations practice− 26339
- Comparable data− 15324
- At least one current client and one registered lobbyist− 38286
- Client engagement added or ended within the past 36 months− 14272
- Eligible for ranking272
- Each rankingup to 30
Why Lobby500 does not take submissions
A ranking should not depend on which firms have time to enter one. Submissions, client references and interviews favour firms with greater marketing resources, and leave gaps wherever a firm or client declines to take part.
Lobby500 ranks the market using data, so no firm improves its position by writing a better submission.
What the rankings do not measure
Work that is not registrable
Non-lobbying work and in-house government relations teams at companies, industry associations or charities do not appear on the register. Registrable third-party lobbying must be recorded there, and the register is the only public record of federal lobbying engagements in Australia.
State and territory lobbying
These rankings cover the federal register.
Outcomes
Policy results sometimes take years, rarely have a single cause and are not disclosed consistently. Lobby500 does not rank on evidence that cannot be compared across firms.
Seniority and team size
Government Experience counts former government representatives without weighting role or length of service. Team Strength counts registered lobbyists, not total staff.
These are limits of the public record, and they fall on every firm equally. A measure that cannot be checked for every registered firm is not ranked on. Every ranked firm is measured on the same record, under the same rules, every week.
Questions about Lobby500 rankings
Who are the best government relations firms in Australia?
Market Leaders shows which firms hold the most clients, and Sector Leaders shows who leads in a single sector. Market Expansion and Fast Growth show who is winning new work. Team Strength and Government Experience show how firms are staffed. Which measure matters most depends on the brief, and firm profiles carry the context a ranking cannot.
What if a firm's data is wrong?
Questions about a firm's data can be sent to contact@lobby500.com. Lobby500 considers each one against the register and its own records. Confirmed corrections are applied at the next weekly recalculation.
More background: What is lobbying?
Note
Register data is © Commonwealth of Australia 2026, used and adapted under CC BY 4.0. Company status checks use the ASIC company dataset (© Australian Securities and Investments Commission, CC BY 3.0 AU).
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