Government relations roadmap: best practice, step by step

Government relations is how an organisation works with the people who decide policy: knowing who they are, building relationships with them, and making a clear, well-timed case backed by evidence. There are no easy wins. It takes time and effort, and relationships often decide whether you achieve an outcome or fall short. The golden rule is to build and maintain relationships before you need them.

This roadmap sets out how Australian government relations and public affairs teams do that well, from the first objective to the report for the board. It is current as of October 2026: the second Albanese government, and the Victorian and New South Wales elections ahead.

The short version

• Set objectives you can be held to: a decision, the person who makes it, and a date.
• Map your key stakeholders: who decides and who influences them, across ministers’ offices, the parliament, the public service and your allies.
• Build and maintain relationships before you need them, with government, opposition and crossbench, and record what you learn so it stays with the team.
• Make one clear ask, framed in the government’s priorities and backed by local evidence.
• Get the timing right: plan around the budget, estimates, sitting weeks, elections and caretaker periods.
• Manage long-term issues with a plan, and prepare for one-off issues before they arrive.
• Stay within the lobbying, donation and disclosure rules, and write as if it could be published.
• Measure and report what the team did and what changed, and keep the two apart.

Set objectives you can be held to

Plans often start with objectives like “raise our profile in Canberra” or “improve relationships with government”. Nobody can tell when they have been met. A useful objective names a decision, the person or body that makes it, and when. It is realistic about the government’s appetite for change.

Template: “By [date], we want [decision-maker] to [decision], so that [result for our organisation].”

Southcourt Foods, a food manufacturer with 450 staff at plants in regional Victoria and Queensland, is the example used throughout this guide. The organisation, the program and the figures are fictional.

Example: “By the 2027–28 Budget, we want the industry minister to open a federal grants program for energy upgrades to manufacturers with 200 to 500 staff, so that we can upgrade our two Victorian plants.”

Then separate what you control from what you don’t. You can’t make a minister decide, but you can make sure the people who decide have heard your case from the right messengers, at the right time, with evidence they can use. Set objectives for both: the outcome you want, and the work that gives it the best chance.

Agree objectives with the people who own the business problem, such as operations, finance and the chief executive, so the team works on what matters most to the organisation rather than on what is easiest to get a meeting about. For a fuller method, including how to sort stakeholders by their position and plan engagement with each, see how to build a government relations strategy.

Map your key stakeholders

Government relations starts with knowing who shapes the decision. For most issues, that means:

• Ministers and their offices: the minister, the chief of staff and the adviser who covers your issue. Ministerial advisers are not public servants: they are employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 and handle the political side of an issue. Most ministers’ offices also have a departmental liaison officer, a public servant who manages correspondence and briefings between the department and the office.
• The opposition: shadow ministers and their advisers. If the government changes, ties with the opposition save you starting again.
• The Senate and the crossbench: the second Albanese government has a large majority in the House of Representatives but not in the Senate, so contested bills need the votes of the Greens, the Coalition or enough crossbench senators. On a bill that matters to you, the senators who hold the balance matter as much as the minister.
• Backbenchers: government and opposition MPs who carry views into the party room, especially those with an interest in your issue or a site in their electorate.
• Committees: the chair, members and secretariat of the parliamentary committees that inquire into your issue.
• Departments and regulators: the department that runs the policy or program, and the central agencies (the Treasury and the departments of Finance and of the Prime Minister and Cabinet) that assess proposals across government.
• States and territories: for planning, health, energy, transport and many regulations, the decision is made in a state or territory capital, not in Canberra. Each has its own parliament, departments, committees, budget and conventions: map them as you would Canberra, and don’t assume a federal relationship carries across.
• Allies and opponents: peak bodies, unions, community organisations, think tanks and other businesses, whose positions strengthen or weaken yours.

Keep the map on one page. For each person, record their influence on the decision, their current position, what they care about and your next step. Review it monthly, and after every reshuffle or election.

Follow what they say. Read what your target MPs say in parliament, in the news and on social media, so you understand their priorities and can tailor your message. A political monitoring service can alert you when they raise your issue in parliament or on social media.

Build and maintain relationships

Relationships with elected representatives, political staff, public servants and regulators protect your organisation’s interests, and they take steady, planned engagement, not one-off transactions.

Start before you need anything. If an adviser has met you, read a useful note from you or visited your site, your call is more likely to be returned when an issue arrives.

Build support in the party room. Talk to backbenchers before you escalate an issue.

Meet the advisers. If you can’t get a meeting with a minister, meet their advisers: they shape what reaches the minister, and how. The GovConnex directory holds verified contact details for ministers’ staff.

Be useful, not only persuasive. Keep stakeholders up to date on your organisation’s work and offer help when it is needed: data they can’t get elsewhere, early warning of a problem on the ground, an invitation to see your operation. Contact that brings something keeps doors open for the contact that asks for something.

Go where they are. Attend the events where policymakers and officials are likely to be: industry conferences, community events and the events of parliamentary friendship groups, which bring parliamentarians from all sides together with stakeholders on a particular issue. Informal contact counts too, such as a conversation in a corridor during a sitting week. In non-sitting weeks, MPs are mostly in their electorates, which is the time for a site visit.

Tip: Congratulate ministers and advisers when they are appointed or promoted, with a short note or a post.

Record what you learn. When someone leaves your team, what they knew about a minister’s office often leaves with them, unless it was written down where the team can find it. Log meetings, commitments and positions in one shared place, such as a government relations CRM: why a sales CRM falls short explains what to look for.

A workable rhythm for a small team:

Make one clear ask

Come with a clear ask, and know how it fits the politics of the day: how the media is covering the issue, where the public stands on it and, more importantly, where the government thinks the public stands. An insights tool can show how the debate on your issue has moved over time, and which representatives and parties raise it most.

Write the ask in one sentence before you write anything else.

Template: “We’re asking [person] to [specific action] by [date], because [what it does for their priorities]. [One figure that matters to them.]”

Example: “We’re asking the minister to open a grants program for energy upgrades to manufacturers with 200 to 500 staff in the 2027–28 Budget, because it would help keep manufacturing jobs in regional Australia. Our two Victorian plants employ 380 people.”

Be concise. Keep correspondence to one page, even on complex matters, and open with the main request. Letters with several requests, or an unclear one, can get lost. Our checklist for writing to MPs covers this in detail, and a briefing note carries the supporting detail.

Stay consistent. Say the same thing to every stakeholder, inside and outside your organisation, especially on long-running issues. A message that changes with the audience is soon noticed.

Make the evidence local and specific. Figures for an MP’s own electorate, such as local jobs, suppliers or community programs, show your organisation’s reach better than national totals. Add what a change would cost or save, and who would pay.

Offer case studies. Show how legislation or a policy affects an industry, a profession or people in the community.

If the ask costs money, help government cost it. A proposal with a cost needs costings agreed with the Department of Finance (or the Treasury, for tax revenue) before it can go to Cabinet. Give the department the figures it needs to do that, and say where they came from.

Use the meeting well. Don’t meet for the sake of meeting: have one clear message you want the MP to take away. Leave a one-page note behind, and follow up within a day. More on meetings is in our guide to meeting MPs.

Get the timing right

Know their schedule before you get in touch. Avoid contacting ministers, MPs or their advisers at busy times, such as question time (2 pm on sitting days), estimates hearings or a political crisis.

Have it ready in the top drawer. Do the early work so your proposal is ready when the moment comes. Timing often decides whether a proposal succeeds, so watch for the government’s readiness and the wider political climate.

The federal parliament usually sits in three periods: autumn (February to April), budget (May and June) and spring (August to December). Within a period, the House usually sits Monday to Thursday for two weeks, then breaks for two. Sitting weeks are for Canberra meetings; non-sitting weeks are for electorates. Check the published sitting calendar before you plan.

Most budget decisions are made in the months before budget night, so an ask needs to be with the department and the minister’s office by the end of the calendar year, not in April. Our guide to building a government relations strategy sets out the federal year, from pre-budget submissions to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

Elections and caretaker periods. Federally, the caretaker period begins when the House of Representatives is dissolved and lasts until the result is clear or a new government is appointed. During it, the government avoids major policy decisions, significant appointments and major contracts that would bind an incoming government. States and territories have their own conventions.

Two elections are close. Victoria votes on 28 November 2026, and its caretaker period is due to begin at 6 pm on 3 November. New South Wales votes on 13 March 2027. If a decision you need sits with either government, aim to have it made before the caretaker period begins, or plan to raise it with whoever forms government.

Before an election, brief candidates as well as sitting members. Candidates are often easier to reach, and those who don’t win may later work in an office you need.

Tip: In an election period, offer your site, such as a factory, office or childcare centre, for announcements. Make the same offer to every side.

Work through the parliament and the public service

Departments. Departments design programs, write the guidelines and advise on the options. Engage the program area early, with data, and respond to consultations. Public servants are apolitical: give them facts and analysis rather than politics, and don’t ask them to take sides.

Correspondence. Letters to a minister are usually logged by the office, and many go to the department for a draft reply. If an adviser needs to read it, send it to the adviser as well.

Committees and inquiries. A submission puts your evidence on the public record and in front of the members who will report on the issue. Make a submission when an inquiry touches your issue, offer to appear, and read what others submit. Wait until the committee has published your submission before you publish it yourself: until then it is a committee document, and publishing it first isn’t protected by parliamentary privilege.

Senate estimates. Usually three times a year, senators question ministers and officials on how programs are run and money is spent. The transcripts, and the answers to questions taken on notice, show what a department is saying about your issue. Senators often ask questions that stakeholders have raised with them.

Costings for non-government MPs. Outside an election’s caretaker period, any senator or member can ask the Parliamentary Budget Office to cost a policy, and can ask for the request to be confidential. If an opposition or crossbench MP takes up your idea, give their office the detail a costing needs.

Manage long-term issues

Long-term issues need sustained attention, a plan and targeted advocacy: understanding the policy landscape, anticipating obstacles and taking opportunities as they come.

Understand the policy landscape. Follow the legislation, regulation, inquiries and consultations that affect you, and the drivers behind them: public opinion, other stakeholders’ interests, the economy and the budget. Know the constraints the government is working within, too: its election commitments, its budget position and what it has already ruled out. That is often what makes a proposal realistic, and attractive to government. Scan the horizon each quarter for issues likely to matter in the next six to eighteen months: our guide to political intelligence explains how.

Develop a long-term advocacy strategy. Define your goals for the issue, choose the mix of tactics (direct engagement, submissions, coalitions, media and supporters), and set aside the staff, budget and time to carry it through. Keep each issue’s plan on one page: our guide to building a government relations strategy has a template.

Build your support base. Look for chances to work with other groups, competitors and industry partners on a shared position, and use your stakeholder map to find organisations that share your aims. A joint approach can make a funding request or a policy case simpler for government to say yes to. Southcourt, for example, could make its case alongside other regional food manufacturers and their peak body.

Be ready for good news. If the government announces something that advances your goals, such as a budget measure, be ready to support it publicly as a third party, with a statement on the day.

Manage one-off issues

One-off issues are sudden and time-sensitive, and need prompt action to limit the damage.

Respond and assess quickly. Name a small response team before you need one, so it can meet within the hour. Assess how serious the issue is, including the legal, reputational, financial and regulatory consequences.

Agree the goal, then act. Decide what you are trying to achieve, such as correcting the record, limiting reputational damage or resolving a regulatory concern. Give each action an owner, agree what you will say to staff, government and the public so the message is consistent, and change course when the facts do.

Escalate only when you must. Take a request to the Prime Minister’s or a premier’s office only when every other avenue has been exhausted.

Review and learn. Once it is over, debrief the team and write a short report on how the organisation handled the issue, with lessons learned and recommendations for next time.

Here is how the first two days might look if your organisation is named in a Senate estimates hearing:

Stay within the rules

If you lobby for clients, register. Third-party lobbyists must be on the Australian Government Register of Lobbyists, run by the Attorney-General’s Department, and follow the Lobbying Code of Conduct. At first contact, they must say they are a lobbyist and who they represent. Ministers, their staff and public servants must not knowingly deal with a lobbyist who isn’t registered.

In-house teams don’t register federally. The federal code doesn’t apply to organisations lobbying on their own behalf, but its principles, such as honesty and not overstating your access, are a good standard for everyone. States and territories run their own registers and codes (in NSW, the Electoral Commission; in Queensland, the Integrity Commissioner), and their rules differ from the Commonwealth’s.

Check before you hire former officials. If you engage a lobbying firm, check who will work for you. Under the Lobbying Code, former ministers and parliamentary secretaries must not lobby for clients for 18 months on matters they dealt with in their last 18 months in office, and former ministerial advisers, senior public servants and senior defence officers for 12 months. Former ministers have also undertaken, under the Code of Conduct for Ministers, not to lobby, advocate or have business meetings on those matters for 18 months, whoever they work for.

Treat political donations separately. Paying to attend a political fundraiser can count as a political donation. From 1 January 2027, federal donations totalling more than $5,000 must be disclosed, and donations and electoral spending are capped. The states have their own rules: in NSW, property developers and tobacco, liquor and gambling businesses can’t donate or pay to attend a fundraiser, and from 1 October 2026 until the election on 13 March 2027, parties, elected members, candidates and third-party campaigners must disclose reportable donations within seven days. Agree a policy with legal and finance, and keep donation decisions apart from your engagement.

Write as if it could be published. Documents held by departments, and official documents of ministers, can be requested under freedom of information law, and committee submissions are usually published.

Measure and report

Ongoing evaluation shows whether your work is having the effect you want, and gives leadership a reason to keep investing in it. Measure at three levels:

Then say what each outcome is worth to the organisation, such as costs avoided, revenue protected or risk reduced.

Report activity and outcomes separately. A record of meetings followed by a policy change doesn’t prove one caused the other, and a board trusts a team that says so. Say what the team contributed, what else changed, and what comes next.

Review on a rhythm: the stakeholder map and plans monthly, a report to leadership each quarter, and the objectives once a year, or after an election.

A 12-month roadmap, worked through

Here is how the pieces fit together for Southcourt Foods (fictional), from October 2026 to the 2027–28 Budget and after.

Common questions

What is the difference between government relations, public affairs and lobbying? Government relations is an organisation’s ongoing work with government: understanding decisions, building relationships and making its case. Public affairs is broader, adding media, community and stakeholder campaigns that shape the environment government decides in. Lobbying is seeking to influence a decision directly. In Australia, people who lobby on behalf of clients must also register.

Should we use a government relations consultancy? A consultancy can add relationships, knowledge of how decisions are made and extra capacity, especially around a change of government, a budget ask or an issue outside your team’s experience. It can’t replace your organisation’s own relationships and evidence. Check that the firm is on the relevant register of lobbyists, how it handles conflicts between clients, and whether it works across the parliament.

How long does government relations take to pay off? Relationships take months to build, and a policy change often takes a budget cycle or longer. Set quarterly measures, such as people met, positions moved and submissions lodged, so leadership can see progress before the outcome.