Former senior minister Kate Jones quits lobbying firm

Former Queensland Labor Minister Kate Jones has sensationally quit her job at a lobbying firm after the role was exposed by The Australian.

Kate Jones (in sailor hat on left) at the Akin Agency Christmas party. Akin Agency's registered lobbyist, Alex Dickson, is on the right in the striped shirt.

Former senior Labor minister Kate Jones organised and attended a meeting in 2022 to allow a hospitality mogul to lobby her close friend, then Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles, for “government assistance” for a property development.

Ms Jones was forced to quit her “specialist consultant” job with lobbying firm Akin Agency on Tuesday, after The Australian revealed her role and meetings with former Queensland government colleagues.

She insisted that although Akin had registered as a lobbyist in December – two days before the resignation of Annastacia Palaszczuk, whom Ms Jones helped oust – she herself was not paid to lobby for the firm and is not a registered lobbyist.

But now Premier Mr Miles on Tuesday released more details of the meetings he had with the former tourism minister since she quit parliament in 2020, and called in the lobbying regulator, Integrity Commissioner Linda Waugh, for advice.

He said a meeting Ms Jones organised and attended for ­Mantle Group chair Godfrey Mantle on May 24, 2022, was for Mr Mantle to “discuss government assistance for the redevelopment of the Summit Res­taur­ant” at the top of Mount Coot-tha.

“On that occasion, Ms Jones stated she was receiving no remuneration or other consideration for assisting Mr Mantle to arrange the discussion,” Mr Miles wrote to Ms Waugh.

Mr Miles, Ms Jones and Mantle Group have all refused to say why Ms Jones was at the meeting.

Rich-lister Bevan Slattery and former QLD Tourism and Innovation Minister Kate Jones. Photograph: Che Chorley

Under Queensland law, all lobbying activity must be done by registered lobbyists and declared on the state’s public register.

Lobbyists are people who try to influence government ­decision-making for third-party clients for a fee or “other reward”.

Ms Waugh has warned against pro-bono lobbying, saying it needs to be “treated with extreme caution”. “Intangible agreements or understandings can also be classified as a ‘fee or other reward’ and give rise to ‘lobbying activity’,” the Integrity Commissioner’s lobbying guide states.

Akin Agency and Ms Jones have said they complied with all government requirements, including the Integrity Commissioner’s lobbying rules.

The opposition called for Ms Waugh to investigate Ms Jones’s links to Akin, but the Integrity Commissioner told a parliamentary committee she had no power to investigate and no sway over unregistered lobbyists. Ms Jones on Tuesday played down her role with Akin and said she started “part-time strategic communications and media work” for the Canberra-based firm last year.

“I was not employed as a lobbyist and was not paid to undertake lobbying activity,” she said.

“While I was engaged to provide professional services relating to strategic communications and media advice, I have today advised Akin … I will step down from undertaking any further work for the agency as I do not want this work to be an ongoing distraction for my other board responsibilities and charitable work.”

Ms Jones is an Australian Rugby League commissioner for the National Rugby League, a Tech Council of Australia executive director and a “strategy and engagement adviser” for rich-lister Bevan Slattery’s firm, Soda.

Ms Jones was heavily promoted on Akin’s website, received third billing on its staff page ­behind its two directors, and it employed a full-time executive assistant for her in February last year.

Next to a photo of former prime minister Kevin Rudd and Ms Jones, the website says it embraces the “intersection of impact, connections and reach”.

“Akin Agency offers a comprehensive suite of services to elevate your organisation and level of influence.”

Kate Jones, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Grace Grace. Picture: Jono Searle

Mr Miles told Ms Waugh to contact him if “you consider any aspects of the regime for regulation of lobbyists requires clarification in response to these circumstances”.

He met with Ms Jones in February last year in relation to her Tech Council role, and for a dinner meeting with the Los Angeles Rams in May, which she attended as ARL commissioner.

Ms Jones secured a meeting in June with factional ally and ex-ministerial colleague Grace Grace for drinking water company SOURCE Global, which was declared as a paid lobbying client for Akin months later.

Ms Jones said she arranged and attended it as part of her Tech Council role. She said the company had been an “affiliate member” of the Tech Council for years, but The Australian has not been able to find it on any public list of the council’s members.