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Ian Richard Smith is an Australian political lobbyist. He is a founder of the firm Bespoke Approach, and is considered by The Power Index to be one of Australia's most influential political lobbyists.
Smith's first job in Australia was as a reporter for the Daily Advertiser in Wagga Wagga. He later transferred to The Advertiser in Adelaide, for which as of 2014 [update] he continued to write occasional opinion editorial pieces and provided political commentary. [1] [2]
He founded the firm Bespoke Approach in 2008, and solicited former federal politicians Alexander Downer and Nick Bolkus to become partners. The firm's fourth partner is Andrew Butcher, a former spokesperson for Rupert Murdoch. Smith modelled the business on the way that the Kissingers, Albrights and Scowcrofts lobbied in the US. [3]
Smith has worked as a media adviser for the Liberal Party of South Australia and to former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett. He is a former CEO of public relations firm Gavin Anderson & Co, one of the largest in Australia. [3] [4] They have two children. [5]
In 2011 Smith was listed on Crikey's The Power Index as one of Australia's ten most influential political lobbyists. [3]
Smith is a former member of the Committee for Melbourne and advocated for the establishment of the Committee for Adelaide in South Australia, [6] of which he was a member in 2015. Smith's other advisory group and board memberships include The Big Issue , [7] the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, the Northern Territory Government's Economic Development Panel, and Developing East Arnhem Land Ltd. The latter company was established by the Northern Territory Government, the Commonwealth government and mining company Rio Tinto to drive economic development in East Arnhem Land. [8]
As of 2015, Smith was on the United Kingdom's Honorary Consul in South Australia. [8]
In November 2015, Smith was scheduled to appear on the ABC TV talk show, Q&A. [8]
In mid-2015 Smith co-founded Barefoot to Boots with Awer G. Bul [9] (brother of football player Awer Mabil [10] ), an organisation which helps refugees by "providing them with simple things that are otherwise inaccessible" to boost their resilience and help them to develop new skills. [8]
He has been an ambassador for LivingPositive, an organisation which aims to remove the stigma surrounding people living with HIV/AIDS, and for the Orangutan Project, which works on the protection of orangutans in Indonesia. [8] As of 2015 [update] Smith was chair of Jirrawun Arts, an Indigenous arts organisation in the East Kimberley. [7]
Smith married former leader of the Australian Democrats, Natasha Stott Despoja, in a beachside ceremony in Byron Bay in 2003. [4] They have two children, and as of 2018 were living in Adelaide. [5]
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australia's largest minor party from its formation in 1977 through to 2004 and frequently held the balance of power in the Senate during that time.
Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AO is an Australian diplomat and former politician. Starting her career in student politics, she became an advisor to the Australian Democrats and was appointed to the Australian Senate in 1995 at the age of 26. At the time, she was the youngest woman to serve in federal Parliament. She went on to become deputy leader of the Democrats in 1997 and then federal leader from 2001 to 2002. She retired from the Senate in 2008 as the longest-serving senator from her party.
In politics, lobbying, or advocacy, is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies, but also judges of the judiciary. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact in cooperation with support staff that may not meet directly face-to-face, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals on a personal level in their capacity as voters, constituents, or private citizens; it is also practiced by corporations in the private sector serving their own business interests; by non-profits and non-governmental organizations in the voluntary sector through advocacy groups to fulfil their mission such as requesting humanitarian aid or grantmaking; and by fellow legislators or government officials influencing each other through legislative affairs in the public sector. Lobbying or certain practices that share commonalities with lobbying are sometimes referred to as government relations, or government affairs and sometimes legislative relations, or legislative affairs. It is also an industry known by many of the aforementioned names, and has a near complete overlap with the public affairs industry. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, for example amateur lobbyists such as a voter or a bloc of voters within their electoral district acting as private citizens; others like professional lobbyists may engage in lobbying as a business or profession; while others are government relations support staff who work on behalf of professional lobbyists but do not actively participate in influencing or meeting face-to-face with targeted personnel enough to be considered registered lobbyists while working in the same professional circles as professional lobbyists who are legally designated as registered lobbyists.
Andrew John Julian Bartlett is an Australian politician, social worker, academic, and social campaigner who served as a Senator for Queensland from 1997 to 2008 and from 2017 to 2018. He represented the Australian Democrats in his first stint in the Senate, including as party leader from 2002 to 2004 and deputy leader from 2004 to 2008. In November 2017, he returned to the Senate as a member of the Australian Greens, replacing Larissa Waters after her disqualification during the parliamentary eligibility crisis. He resigned from the Senate in August 2018 in an unsuccessful attempt to win the House of Representatives seat of Brisbane, allowing Waters to fill his seat in advance of the 2019 election.
Aden Derek Ridgeway is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australian Democrats. During his term he was the only Aboriginal member of the Australian Parliament. He is currently a spokesperson for Recognise, the movement to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in the Australian Constitution.
Bruce Fredrick Billson is an Australian former politician. A member of the Liberal Party, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2016 and held ministerial office in the Howard, Abbott and Turnbull governments as Minister for Veterans' Affairs (2007) and Minister for Small Business (2013–2015).
Nick Bolkus is a former Australian Labor Party politician. He was a member of the Senate from July 1981 to June 2005, representing the state of South Australia.
John Wayne Olsen, AO is an Australian former politician, diplomat and football commissioner. He was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001. He is now President of the Federal Liberal Party, Chairman of the Australian American Association, Chairman of the Adelaide Football Club and Deputy Chairman of the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority.
John Richard Coulter is an Australian medical researcher and former politician. He was the fourth elected parliamentary Senate leader of the Australian Democrats, serving from 2 October 1991 to 29 April 1993. His understanding of conservation and environment principles was exceptional for the time, though his concern about Australian immigration and population growth occasionally brought him into conflict with the party's non-discriminatory humanitarian and human-rights platforms and got him nicknamed "Doctor Who" by the Australian media.
Kevin Owen Foley is a former South Australian politician who served as 11th Deputy Premier of South Australia and additionally Treasurer of South Australia in the Rann government from 2002 to 2011 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party. He is the longest-serving deputy premier and the third longest-serving treasurer in South Australian history.
Piers Akerman is an Australian columnist and conservative commentator for the Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Nick Xenophon is an Australian politician and lawyer who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the leader of two political parties: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST in South Australia.
Iain Frederick Evans is a former Australian politician. He was leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2006 to 2007.
Isobel Mary Redmond is a former Australian politician who was the member for the electoral district of Heysen in the House of Assembly from 2002 to 2018. She was the parliamentary leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australia between 2009 and 2013, and was the first female leader of a South Australian state major party. Under Redmond, the Liberals won 18 of 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly at the 2010 election, a gain of three from the 2006 election. She resigned as leader of the Liberal Party on 31 January 2013.
Christopher Maurice Pyne is a retired Australian politician. As a member of the Liberal Party, he held several ministerial positions in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, and served as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Sturt from 1993 until his retirement in 2019.
Steven Spence Marshall is an former Australian politician who served as the 46th premier of South Australia between 2018 and 2022. He was a member of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in the South Australian House of Assembly from 2010 until 2024, representing the electorate of Dunstan.
Awer Bul Mabil is a professional soccer player who plays as a winger for Swiss Super League club Grasshoppers. Born as a South Sudanese refugee in Kenya, he plays for the Australia national team.
Amanda Duthie, Scottish-born Australian, is one of the leading figures in Australia's arts and culture industries and was previously the CEO/Creative Director of the Adelaide Film Festival and CEO of Hybrid World Adelaide.
Andrew Butcher is an Australian businessman, former spokesperson for Rupert Murdoch, an accomplished race car driver, and a partner in corporate advisory firm and political lobbyist, Bespoke Approach.
Lobbying in South Australia is a growing activity, by which organizations or individuals attempt to influence the Government of South Australia in its policy, regulation and law-making. Since 1 December 2009, lobbyists commercially operating on behalf of third party interests are required to join a register and must also comply with a Code of Conduct. The register is available to the public via the website of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, and lists the names of registered entities, their employed lobbyists and their clients. As of April 2015, sixty-five different entities are listed on the register, with notable examples including Bespoke Approach and Barker Wentworth.
