Premier ‘baffled’ as connection with former minister Kate Jones questioned
Premier Steven Miles insists former minister Kate Jones is complying with “tough” lobbying laws as he downplayed and scoffed at integrity questions over her links with government.
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Premier Steven Miles insists former minister Kate Jones is complying with “tough” lobbying laws as he downplayed and scoffed at integrity questions over her links with government.
Mr Miles said he was “baffled” by reports questioning his connection with former minister Kate Jones who has been linked with a recently formed lobbying firm.
Mr Miles was questioned following a report in The Australian newspaper which outlined Ms Jones’s close ties to a lobbying firm with activity in Queensland.
The Premier stood by the government integrity reforms aimed at making lobbying influence more transparent and insisted the relationship between Ms Jones and her former colleagues within the government would not “surprise anyone”.
When pressed about the suitability of her connection with Labor MPs in light of the reports,
Mr Miles insisted the relationship between Ms Jones and her former colleagues was no surprise.
“I’m a bit bemused,” he said.
“You all know I’ve been friends with Kate Jones for a long time. I didn’t think that was front page news. Apparently someone else did.”
The Premier said “what I know is Kate will comply with our tough lobbying laws.”
“We expect everybody to comply with what are amongst the toughest lobbying laws in the country,” he said.
Mr Miles said it was well-known that he was friends with Ms Jones.
“It’s not front page news that I’m friends with Kate Jones – we’ve known each other since we were teenagers, we’ve grown up and got old together in the Labor Party,” he said.
“I don’t have any reason for concern.”
Ms Jones, who served as a state minister in the Labor government, played a key role in securing support among Old Guard factional allies to secure Mr Miles the party’s leadership after Annastacia Palaszczuk resigned late last year.
According to reports in The Australian, Ms Jones has a link with Akin Agency, which was registered as a lobbying firm on the Queensland registry on December 8 – just days before Ms Palaszczuk quit politics.
The Canberra-based firm lists the former tourism minister and current NRL commissioner on its website as a “specialist consultant” as part of its team.
But Ms Jones is not listed as a lobbyist on the registry connected with Akin Agency.
Ms Jones quit politics in 2020 but is known to still have a close bond with serving MPs and is regularly spotted in the corridors of Parliament.
The Courier-Mail has attempted to contact Ms Jones, who is understood to be in Las Vegas as part of her commitments with the NRL.
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