Conflict ecology: Examining the strategies and rationales of lobbyists in the mining and energy industries in Australia

Abstract

This article develops a new framework, conflict ecology, for predicting and critiquing specific lobbying strategies. This framework is applied in an analysis of interviews conducted with senior lobbyists from the mining and energy sector in Australia, which has proven to be especially effective in opposing and defeating new taxes and legislation intended to reduce carbon pollution. This analysis shows that an industry suffering a legitimacy gap will likely possess an intransigent or resistant worldview. Practitioners directing these campaigns see their role as ethically justified and necessary to defeat oppositional publics. This worldview gives rise to power strategies that reward allies and punish adversaries, with emotive and targeted issues communication used to apply further pressure to the legislature as part of outsider lobbying campaigns. Ultimately, this study considers the extent to which these lobbying strategies serve communitas ends proposed in the theory of the fully functioning society.