Lobbying and minority government in Australia: The concept of the marginal member

Abstract

Within Westminster-based majority parliaments, the presence of minority government runs contrary to the conventional wisdom. Over the last 40 years, however, there has been a steady voting trend away from major parties in many of these parliaments. The complex composition of the Australian Senate after July 2014 reinforces that non-ministerial marginal members continue to be a vital part of the political landscape. This article introduces the concept of the marginal member and examines the potential influence of these members for legislative outcomes and lobbying success. In doing so, the article provides a heuristic through which to identify avenues of policy influence and presents a range of strategies for lobbyists working with marginal members within minority-government contexts.

在英式多数制议会内，少数党政府的存不符合传统的智慧。在以往40年里，许多英式议会出现了一种偏离多数党的稳定趋势。澳大利亚参院2014年之后的复杂构成，说明非内阁边缘成员依然是政治格局中有活力的部分。本文提出了边缘成员的概念，考察了他们对立法结果及游说成败的潜在影响力。本文提供了一种关于政策影响渠道的思路，以及在少数党政府的情况下如何游说边缘成员的一系列办法。

Keywords:

• climate change
• crossbench parliamentarians
• interest groups
• lobbying
• minority government

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Marginal members are non-ministerial MPs whose changing vote is on the margin and decides between alternate policy positions. When viewed through a majoritarian view of Westminster systems (which equates Cabinet with government), any MP not holding a portfolio is a ‘non-government member’ and it is such MPs that we describe as potential marginal members. Our recent book on policymaking in minority government provides a more detailed explanation of this concept (Prosser and Denniss 2015).