Political investorism in Australia: unnatural insiders and the insider/outsider dynamics of market lobbying

ABSTRACT

Political lobbying in the marketplace in Australia has risen sharply in the last decade, with increased instances of shareholder activism and other forms of investment-based political participation, or ‘political investorism’. This article provides the first analysis of political investorism in the Australian context, utilising process-tracing and interviews to examine six case studies on issues including modern slavery, climate change, and human rights. We consider the insider and outsider dynamics of political investorism, and the factors that shape the manifestation of this tactic in Australia. We argue that political investorism in Australia is shaped primarily by structural factors including corporate governance rules and the power of superannuation (pension) funds. We demonstrate that some forms of political investorism defy neat categorisation as insider or outsider strategies, identifying a new category of ‘unnatural insider’ to describe the acquisition of insider status for the explicit purpose of pursuing political goals.

过去十年里，澳大利亚商界的政治游说陡然增多，利益相关方加紧了活动，其他形式的投资型政治参与有增无已。本文采用过程追踪以及围绕现代奴隶制、气候变化、人权等议题的六个案例访谈，首次分析了澳大利亚语境下的政治参与。我们考虑了政治参与的内部人和外部人的动力机制，以及在澳大利亚形成这种策略表达的各种因素。我们认为，澳大利亚的政治参与主要是由包括公司治理规则、养老基金力量等结构性因素决定的。某些形式的政治参与挑战了内部人、外部人的明晰分类，本文采用“非自然内部人”的新类别来描述为实现政治目标的外在目的而获取内部人地位的情形。

KEYWORDS:

• Shareholder activism
• investor
• boycott
• divest
• participation
• lobbying
• market

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interviewees are anonymised and signified according to their type of participation (e.g. Civil Society Organisation representative = CSO) and the number of individual participant (e.g. CSO2).

2 There is also scope for shareholders to raise a binding resolution in the UK, although this is available on a much narrower list of issue areas.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council: [Grant Number DE210100735].

Notes on contributors

Erin O’Brien

Erin O'Brien is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology. Her research examines political advocacy, lobbying, and participation, with a particular focus on political consumerism and shareholder activism. She is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2021-2024), investigating shifting responsibilities of the state, consumers, investors, and corporate actors to address complex global issues.

Ainsley Elbra

Ainsley Elbra is a Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney, researching in the field of international political economy. Her work focuses on globalisation, private governance and business-state relations. She has published on the power of multinational corporations, with a particular focus on mining firms and their engagement with host states and communities.

Martijn Boersma

Martijn Boersma is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Business at the University of Notre Dame Australia. His research focuses on the intersection of business and society, and includes areas such as modern slavery, labour standards in supply chains, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility. He is the co-author of Addressing Modern Slavery (with Justine Nolan, UNSW Press 2019).

Justine Coneybeer

Justine Coneybeer is a PhD Candidate at the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. Her doctoral research examines the fashion industry's response to Australia's Modern Slavery Act 2018, and whether the legislation is promoting effective corporate action against exploitative labour. She is also a research associate on projects examining shareholder activism and the prevention of labour exploitation in the cotton value chain.