Copyright smh
CBD brought word on Monday that ACT Senator David Pocock decided to go full whistleblower and create an opt-in register for MPs to declare any lobbyists and other friends they’d sponsored for a Parliament House access pass. The headline act was Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, who as CBD reported, got in thanks to teal independent MP Allegra Spender. We hear that’s because of Farquhar’s role as chair of the rudderless Tech Council of Australia. Spender chairs the Parliamentary Friends of Innovation and Start-ups and sponsored Farquhar’s pass in that capacity. A few other names on the Pocock list piqued our interest. The jacked former Wallabies captain granted access to Instagram talking head Konrad Michalski, better known as Punters Politics, who was a better of a darling at the Midwinter Ball in August, posing for an infamous photo carried by four teal MPs. Pocock also granted access to Alex Dyson, the Triple J host turned independent who thrice unsuccessfully challenged Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan in his regional Victorian seat of Wannon despite this time having a massive $2.2 million campaign war chest (a little more than the $1.1 million he initially declared on his own website). We hope, for their sake, the price of Pocock’s sponsorship isn’t accompanying the senator on one of his brutal workouts.
