How to capture a state: lessons from PwC and the fossil fuel giants

As we’ve become more aware of how the processes of state capture have played out in Australian politics, different varieties of the form have become apparent, representing evolutionary adaptations to particular political environments.

The most common form has been the ability of powerful industries — fossil fuels, arms, banking, gambling — to capture regulators, strongly influence politicians at state and federal levels through donations and revolving-door jobs, and control media coverage and public debate in their interests.

This is the default form of the phenomenon. Let’s call this your vanilla state capture.

We’ve also seen a more specialised and successful form of state capture represented by Queensland Labor-aligned lobbyists Cameron Milner and Evan Moorhead, who, until the Queensland government curbed their activities, combined senior roles as Labor campaign strategists and lobbying for corporate clients.

Recently colleague David