Interested in Interest Groups?

This morning the ABC News website has a story about union lobbying, here's a link.  Qld government seeks to curb union lobbying

Queensland's Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek doesn't like that under existing workplace agreements, a school principal was allowed to use a work email to ask workmates to lobby the Premier over the Gonski education reforms. He has now written to regional education directors demanding that campaigning be done out of work hours. 

Interest groups such as trade unions seek to influence political decisions in order to protect the rights and working conditions of their membership. Other types of interest groups form to campaign for issue-related causes such as the environment or to prevent unpopular housing developments in local areas. It's a two-way street though, and governments and political parties are more than happy to use interest group expertise and information when it suits them. 

Now I think I have the comments section working, I was wondering what you thought about the whole process. 

Should interest groups be able to direct government policy making? You may feel that while specialised input from medical boards and retail associations is necessary to guide policymaking, highly paid lobbyists who have access to the party elite and work for big business interests should be banned. I've a journal article ready for my political science tutorial this afternoon that discusses the regulation of Australian lobbyists, is it significant that other countries have legislation to control the power of lobbyists while we have only a code of conduct? Do paid lobbyists leave government and political parties open to bribery and corruption or are they just a small part of the whole interest group system?