A recent Canberra Times article argued that Canberra's lobbying system is "built for insiders". It is a serious claim, and the questions it raises about transparency and accountability deserve a genuine response.

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But the article leans heavily on federal examples - gas export taxation, national gambling advertising reforms and Commonwealth parliamentary passholders. That is a different conversation. The ACT inquiry is about how people and organisations engage with decision-makers here, in this city.

Those are not the same problem, and treating them as though they are risks leading us to the wrong solutions.

There is an assumption that runs through a lot of modern lobbying debate - that advocacy itself is inherently suspicious. It is worth pushing back on that.

Democracy works best when governments actually hear from the people affected by their decisions. That means charities, unions, residents' associations, sporting bodies, cultural groups and business chambers. It means community clubs.

Not because any of these groups are always right, but because good policy depends on understanding consequences - and the people living with those consequences are usually the ones best placed to explain them.

Canberra has a genuine tradition of this kind of participation. Local organisations working with government is not a sign of capture or cosiness. It is how a small, civic-minded city is supposed to function.

The real risk in any reform is that we design a system that makes participation harder for the organisations least equipped to handle compliance burdens.

Large corporations have government relations teams, lawyers and compliance departments. Volunteer........

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