Consultancy Profile

The Types of Assignments Conducted

Business / Government Relations and The Business Planning Process

Business / Government Communications

The Structure and Administrative Processes of Government in the "New" Bureaucracy

Media & Information Links

Policy Reviews

The business/Government relations process, at both State and Commonwealth level in Australia, must be considered an essential part of the marketing and corporate planning activity of an organisation -  in relating to the "industry of Government".

Just as we refer to the "information industry" so we should see Government as an  " industry" - in its role of developing, interpreting, and administering a mass of regulations and legislation, applying the informal but still significant "Departmental line" to its relationships with business, and in its complex inter-active policy negotiations with other Departments of Government.

There are over 250 Commonwealth Government Departments, Agencies, Commissions, Tribunals which influence the operations of business. There are an even greater number of internal [Inter-Departmental]  committees which administer the inter-actions of these Departments and agencies

For business, therefore, in liaising with Government,  it is as important to understand the Departmental processes of Government, and the Parliamentary, Budgetary and economic policy realities of Government, and the imposed time-tables of and on the bureaucracy - as it is to  develop one's submission, so that an organisation's objectives have the greatest chance of being adopted.

The system of Government which operates in Australia is, in many respects, distinctively different to most other countries. The combined effect of State and Commonwealth Governments and their respective powers, the relative isolation of Canberra from the principal population and industrial / commercial centres, and the still career concept of the Public Service [in which there is now a significant proportion of second and even third generation public servants moving up through the middle to senior levels of the bureaucracy] requires specific recognition in the representation process.

Initiatives by Government to substantially 'corporatise' the management of Departments and agencies adds a further level of sensitivity of approach by business in its inter-relationships with Government.  Large numbers of public servants, particularly at the policy development level, are now on short or longer term contracts and many will return to the private sector.  This "new bureaucracy" has a substantial degree of influence and de-facto control of the policy administration functions of Government - particularly at the "micro"/  industry  level .

It is within this bureaucratic environment that business must seek to ensure that it is, at the very least, aware of changes in legislation, and often more importantly, aware of changes in the policy line of Government and bureaucracy in its interpretation and administration of existing legislation and regulations.

Corporate Interlink based in Canberra, is in daily contact with the bureaucracy on a range of assignments for the business sector . We understand and operate within the Government system, providing the detailed representation necessary for the achievement of your business objectives.