Analysis of Government-Business Relations and Influence in Australia

This essay delves into the intricate relationship between government and business, highlighting the significant influence businesses wield over government policies and regulations. It examines various factors contributing to this influence, including economic contributions, lobbying efforts, globalization's impact, and political actions. The essay argues that businesses exert more influence than other interest groups due to their substantial contributions to economic growth and development, as well as their ability to shape policies in their favor. It explores how businesses utilize strategies like campaign funding and personal connections to affect legislative decisions. Furthermore, the essay analyzes the role of government in regulating businesses, setting trade policies, and maintaining a stable economy. It concludes that a balanced relationship between government and businesses is crucial for a country's economic and environmental well-being, while emphasizing the dominant influence of businesses in shaping this dynamic.

Government-Business
Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Government Business relations is the link between government and business in a country.
They are the main organizations in a society. It is important to analyse their relationship as it
gives an understanding of how companies work (Curran, 2015). “Business has far more
influence on government than any other interest group”. Australia's government has various
policies regarding national and international matters that have to be considered. This helps in
understanding complexities between government and business at all levels. This assignment will
explain how businesses have more influence on the government through analysis of economy,
distribution power in the society, globalisation, politics, interest group's impact on policies and
changes that occur in global environment. Government has influence over businesses through
laws and regulations for companies, trade policies and banks, while business influences over the
formation of trade unions, political actions, investments and personal conducts. They both are
dependable on each other because their aim is to achieve growth and stability (Murray, 2018).
MAIN BODY
The statement that “Business has far more influence on government than any other
interest group”, is true. This is because there are various factors that a business puts forth, when
it is operating in a country with government rules and regulations (Wanna, Lindquist and
Marshall, 2015). They have to make sure that regular payment of taxes is done, as they provide a
huge contribution to the government that requires these taxes for development of country.
Government has a pivotal and expanding effect on companies’ industries and economic value
(Dua, Heil and Wilkins). Businesses have to give feedbacks that is beneficial for government
when they face economic problems and they require changes. Governments are the bodies that
can create valid contracts for businesses. Thus, they have to make a set of standards for
corporates, in order to commence business operations (Boese and Phillips, 2017). Businessmen
share their contribution in government advisory boards as they can help in the growth of
country's development through international trade in the industry.
A business easily influences government by forcing them to take decisions in a manner
that will be beneficial for business activities, but in legal methods. Personal conducts are present
between political leaders, corporate executives and government officials as they are in the same
social class. They all have personal relationships with each other and engage in various plans that
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influences policies (Murray, 2018). These include business lobbying, in which government
officials are asked to create conducts and legislations that will help in benefiting particular
organisations. They help politicians in gaining votes from the public, and in return ask for
policies that are in favour of business. There are various types of lobbying that can be used by
companies, which include defensive, direct and indirect. They influence political activities
through contribution of money to parties especially at times of elections. Businesses have an
advantage of displaying lobbying as business activities (Harrison and Baird, 2015). Businesses
can highly influence citizens of the public by various advertisements and mainstream media as
well as international organisations, political and economic agreements.
Globalisation has caused government to create new rules and policies regarding trade
between businesses, internationally. They have to make relations with the countries that they do
import export with and ensure that there are standards of norms, technology and their practices.
It has caused low employment opportunities for domestic workers, which leads to decrease in
economic and GDP growth (Mihailovich and et.al., 2017). Government have to keep correct
balance between international and national needs. The high rate of competition in globalisation
can cause economy of a country to deteriorate instead of growing. Policymakers can take
decision to alleviate anxieties about globalisation (Jim O'Neill, 2017). Without the government,
globalisation cannot be achieved and infant domestic industries have to be protected by them.
They have to create new infrastructures that will suit international capital flows. Global
environment of a business that consists of other country's political, economic, social,
technological, legal and environmental factors has to be analysed by government so that they are
aware of all changes that are occurring and adapt or control them successfully (Detomasi, 2015).
This ensures that there is no damage done to domestic environmental factors.
Government officials are responsible for preparing and implementing various economic
and business laws that have to help in smooth functioning of businesses. They have the
responsibility to set up a proper judicial system so that disputes between companies can be
settled without much hassle (Bennis, 2017). Regulatory agencies make decisions regarding
businesses in a country and are generally targeted by companies. They want regulations to be
made in their favour, so that business can grow and develop, which will ultimately lead to a
developing economy. Political contributions are done by businesses through campaigns to
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support their position for the purpose of influencing policies that help to increase profits.
Political action committee consists of employees contributions in legal limited amounts to certain
candidates (Vuorelma, van de Wetering and Haukkala, 2018). Owners of large firms donate
money to those parties that have the same political view as theirs.
Formation of trade unions' association with business companies for the determination of
common issues and presentation of reports can be done with government bodies so that they are
resolved. These issues can affect the government from economy to environment. Interest group
participation of politics has an important role in democratic systems of government as they seek
influence of public policies which will help them attaining growth and high rates of profitability
(Dowding and Martin, 2017). Large investments of businesses for projects can affect
government policies of foreign trade. They have to provide a system of credit and money to
businesses, as a means of exchange of business transactions. Government has to regulate money
so that it can be protected in terms of other currencies across the globe. They also have to
maintain a balance in growth and development of the country to ensure that there is full
employment and stable economy (Wanna, Lindquist and Marshall, 2015). Government has the
resources and capabilities that they have to use optimally and provide to businesses.
Governments have to provide information that may be of use to companies, which can be
about industry, scientific and technological developments that is of business' interest.
Government and businesses need to have a balanced relationship with each other in order to
maintain peace and proper functioning of country's economy and environment (The role of
government, 2017). Business influences them by controlling and changing existing policies, laws
and regulations for their benefit. Privatisation, tax avoidance and reduction, pollution are other
reasons for influencing government to change their legislative decisions. Campaign funding is a
strategy used by businesses to influence government. In this, companies contribute a large
amount of money to political campaigns and it is usually accepted by politicians as it favours
them as well. If a company’s stock price has significantly risen after the election of its
favoured candidate, it meant that shareholders believed that the company would do better as a
result of the election—and that they were ready to put their own money behind that belief
(Fowler, Garro and Spenkuch, 2017).Businesses prefer to protect their profitability and try to
do as much as they can to match policies with fixing their areas of concerns (Boese and Phillips,
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2017). Businessmen with high amounts of money can only manipulate decisions of government,
due to its extremely complex process and use these above methods to influence government.
It is true that businesses have a greater influence as compared to other interest group as
these groups do not have a huge impact on government and their decision making process
(Mihailovich and et.al., 2017). This is because they do not contribute to country's economic
growth and development. The rules, regulations and policies do not affect them in a severe way.
They play a small part in the environment and do not come under globalisation. The information
present with government is of minimal use for them and does not help them as much. They do
not have enough money available that can enable them to create an impact on political parties
and their decisions to change policies (Harrison and Baird, 2015). Thus, the above statement can
be agreed upon.
CONCLUSION
This assignment concludes that government business relations are an important part of
businesses as analysis of their relationship in order to give an understanding to organisations as
well as government. “Business has far more influence on government than any other interest
group” is true because they influence the economy, distribution power in society, globalisation,
politics, interest group's impact on policies and changes that occur in global environment. This
paper has argued that government has influence over business laws and regulations for
companies, trade policies and banks, while business influences over the formation of trade
unions, political actions, investments, lobbying and personal conducts. Both of their aim is to
achieve growth and stability with the help of globalisation, large investments and balance of
economies. It has been argued that Australia's government has to make changes in various
policies regarding national and international matters, that will have to be in favour of businesses,
which is why interest groups do not have a strong influence on government, but businesses do.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bennis, W. G. (2017). Beyond bureaucracy. In American Bureaucracy (pp. 3-16). Routledge.
Boese, M & Phillips, M. (2017). ‘Half of myself belongs to this town’: conditional belongings
of temporary migrants in regional Australia. Migration, Mobility, & Displacement. 3(1).
51-69.
Curran, G. (2015). Political modernisation for ecologically sustainable development in
Australia. Australasian journal of environmental management. 22(1). 7-20.
Detomasi, D. (2015). The multinational corporation as a political actor:‘varieties of
capitalism’revisited. Journal of Business Ethics. 128(3). 685-700.
Dowding, K & Martin, A. (2017). Political Institutions and Policy in Australia. In Policy
Agendas in Australia (pp. 59-83). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Harrison, G. L & Baird, K. M. (2015). The organizational culture of public sector organizations
in Australia. Australian Journal of Management. 40(4). 613-629.
Mihailovich, N. S & et.al., (2017). Forms of cooperation of government, business and science to
create innovative sectors of economy (regional aspect). communication theory. 4(5). 6-7.
Murray, P. (2018). Australia’s engagement with the European Union: partnership choices and
critical friends. Australian Journal of International Affairs. 72(3). 208-223.
Vuorelma, J., van de Wetering, C & Haukkala, H. (2018). Introduction: Approaching trust and
mistrust in International Relations. In Trust in International Relations (pp. 1-6).
Routledge.
Wanna, J., Lindquist, E. A & Marshall, P. (2015). New Accountabilities, New Challenges. ANU
Press.
Online
The role of government. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.globalization101.org/the-role-of-government/>
Globalisation has made the world a better place . 2017 [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/18/globalisation-world-trade-asia-
global-poverty>
When Corporations Donate to Candidates, Are They Buying Influence. 2017. [Online].
Available through: <https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/do-corporate-
campaign-contributions-buy-influence>
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How business interacts with government: McKinsey Global Survey results. 2010. [Online].
Available through:
<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/how-business-interacts-
with-government-mckinsey-global-survey-results>
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