The World Bank defines state capture as “the exercise of power by private actors to… shape policies or implementation in service of their narrow interests”.
Typically, corporations and powerful individual use financial donations, lobbying, revolving doors and “golden escalators”, the repurposing of institutions intended to serve the public interest, think tanks and public campaigns to bend decision makers to their will.
Australia’s democracy is a case study in state capture, with industries such as fossil fuels, arms companies, banks and consulting firms embedding themselves within our government structures. The 2022 election centres on the most corrupt government in federal history, its control by fossil fuel companies and other business interests and its refusal to accept even basic integrity and anti-corruption measures.
What does all this mean for the upcoming election?
Former Greens senator and public policy thinker Scott Ludlam joined Crikey’s Georgia Wilkins and Bernard Keane and discussed the Australian Democracy Network’s new report on state capture, released February 15, how the mechanisms of state capture will play out in the 2022 election — and what can be done to prevent it.
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