Palaszczuk assassin Kate Jones employed by new lobbying firm
Former Palaszczuk government minister Kate Jones is employed by a new lobbying firm, registered in Queensland just days before Annastacia Palaszczuk quit as Premier.
A lobbying firm linked to former state Labor cabinet minister Kate Jones was set up in Queensland days before Annastacia Palaszczuk quit politics and as Ms Jones was helping to force the then-premier’s resignation and install close friend Steven Miles.
Ms Jones, an NRL commissioner tipped to replace Peter V’landys as chairman of the code’s governing body, has privately boasted of playing a central role in the plot last December to oust Ms Palaszczuk.
The former state tourism minister, who was widely known to have fallen out with Ms Palaszczuk before quitting politics in 2020, was then involved, according to several sources, in securing the support of former factional colleagues for Mr Miles in a partyroom vote that elected him Premier.
Around the same time, Canberra-based public relations and lobbying firm Akin Agency – for which Ms Jones is heavily promoted on the company’s website as its “specialist consultant” – was finalising moves for its official expansion into Queensland.
The firm registered as a lobbyist on December 8, two days before Ms Palaszczuk quit as premier, with Ms Jones’ former ministerial staffer and policy adviser Alex Dickson its only declared lobbyist.
Ms Jones’ involvement in the firm is not mentioned in the firm’s declaration on the lobbying register, nor on her LinkedIn page.
Mr Dickson has not declared his history as a former senior government official on the lobbying register, but told The Weekend Australian he would contact the Integrity Commissioner to correct the oversight.
Within five days of its appearance on the lobbyist register, the firm had eight clients, including Brisbane entertainment precinct Howard Smith Wharves, Smart Parking Limited (an ASX-listed company with billionaire casino owner Chris Morris as non-executive chairman) and the Technology Council of Australia, of which Ms Jones is an executive director.
An analysis of public records shows Ms Jones last year secured one of Akin’s now-paid lobbying clients access to one of her “Old Guard” factional allies, Industrial Relations and then-education minister Grace Grace.
Ms Jones took drinking water company SOURCE Global’s Rob Bartrop and Alex Polson to the meeting with Ms Grace and senior ministerial staff on June 7, months before Akin Agency was registered as a lobbyist with the company as a declared client.
Under Queensland law, all lobbying activity must be done by registered lobbyists and declared on the state’s public register.
Akin Agency and Ms Jones said they complied with all government requirements, including the Integrity Commissioner’s rules about lobbying.
SOURCE Global’s senior director of market development Mr Polson said Ms Jones knew Ms Grace and set up the meeting for the Akin client. “SOURCE … does Indigenous programs providing water, so Kate just knew Grace, but we haven’t done any work with the Queensland government,” Mr Polson said. “The main goal is not necessarily in Queensland, but overall in the country, places where Indigenous people don’t have water, to provide water.”
Ms Jones said she was at the meeting in her capacity as a board director of the Tech Council of Australia, of which she said SOURCE Global was an “associate member”.
Neither the TCA website, nor SOURCE’s website, appears to list the company as a member or part of its affiliate program.
Ms Grace’s spokeswoman said the company has “direct partnerships” with a small number of Queensland state schools, and the meeting was to address “operational questions” about that work, which were referred to the education department.
Since leaving politics, Ms Jones has been a regular fixture in ministerial offices, at Parliament House and meeting her former ministerial and government colleagues to help spruik businesses, including Soda, founded by rich-lister Bevan Slattery.
Ms Jones attended Mr Miles’ swearing-in as Premier on December 15 along with Mr Slattery, for whom Ms Jones works part-time as a “strategy and engagement adviser”.
When contacted by The Weekend Australian, Mr Dickson said he had got his job as Akin’s lobbyist through Ms Jones, and confirmed he was authorised to speak to the media about his job.
But when asked what role Ms Jones played in setting up his lobbying meetings for Akin, Mr Dickson was silent and then asked for the question to be emailed. Akin’s only declared lobbying contact so far was on February 1, when Mr Dickson met new Transport Minister Bart Mellish on behalf of Smart Parking, about “making or amending legislation”.
Akin Agency managing director Kate Lord said her company was a public affairs agency and complied “with all government requirements, including with the Queensland Office of the Integrity Commissioner”. She said Ms Jones was “employed as a specialist consultant who provides advice on a range of matters including innovation, sport and technology” and Mr Dickson was “employed through our standard recruitment process”.
Ms Jones is in Las Vegas for the NRL season’s opening games. In response to written questions, she declined to comment on her role in Ms Palaszczuk’s ousting, and did not say whether she had sought Integrity Commissioner advice about her post-politics work.
The Weekend Australian asked Ms Jones why she was not a registered lobbyist. She did not answer and instead referred to Ms Lord’s statement, which said Akin followed government regulations, including Integrity Commissioner rules.
The influence and high-level access of Labor-aligned lobbyists to the Queensland state government has been a pervasive integrity issue for the Palaszczuk government for several years.
Ms Palaszczuk was forced to ban three lobbyists – former ALP state secretaries Evan Moorhead and Cameron Milner, as well as David Nelson – from working in Queensland after The Weekend Australian revealed they had run her 2020 re-election campaign. A subsequent inquiry by Peter Coaldrake recommended the ban and described the growth in lobbying activity in Queensland as a “failure of government itself to be able to deal with business and community interests without the involvement of a paid intermediary”.
“Most people would be incredulous at the proposition that a lobbyist working with a political leader in one capacity cannot later exercise special influence,” Professor Coaldrake wrote.
Ms Jones also organised meetings for Indigenous charity Ganbina – which is not a client of Akin – with Ms Grace, Resources Minister Scott Stewart, then-youth justice minister Leanne Linard, and then-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships minister Craig Crawford on February 24, 2022. Ganbina CEO Anthony Cavanagh said Ms Jones did not charge for her work to introduce him to her former ministerial colleagues.
In May 2022, Ms Jones and Godfrey Mantle, chair of one of Queensland’s largest hospitality firms, had a meeting with then-deputy premier Mr Miles, along with his ministerial staff and departmental staff. Ms Jones said she had never been employed by Mr Mantle but did not say why she had the meeting.
Ms Jones and Mr Slattery met Ms Palaszczuk on October 12. In July, the government – via Ms Linard’s environment department – gave Mr Slattery’s Biopixel Oceans Foundation Limited a $90,000 grant to determine the significance of whale shark aggregation in Wreck Bay and the far northern Great Barrier Reef.
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