Bates facing new pressure over register

EMBATTLED Newman Government Arts and IT Minister Ros Bates is facing fresh calls to quit after a lobbyist lunch was left off her official contact register.

Ms Bates' diary, released under Right to Information laws, has revealed she attended a lunch last year with a major lobbying firm and its clients with interests in the minister's portfolio areas.

However, the lunch was not recorded in Ms Bates' Contact with Lobbyists Register, including the updated version she was forced to release after admitting the initial copy was inadequate.

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The diary details were released to the Opposition on Tuesday last week, which coincides with Ms Bates' decision to sack her chief-of-staff Digby McLeay.

Ms Bates' spokeswoman confirmed the minister attended the lobbyist's lunch but insisted there was no reason to record it in the register.

"There was no lobbying at this event and therefore it wasn't applicable for the lobbyist register," she said.

Opposition arts spokeswoman Jackie Trad rejected the minister's claim and called on her to quit or be sacked.

"It is now up to the Premier to declare if he accepts such sloppy standards and explain why the minister is still in Cabinet with such a string of disasters behind her," she said.

"The Premier's first loyalty should be to Queenslanders and Queenslanders deserve better than Ros Bates."

The diary entry from August 7 shows the lunch at the exclusive Brisbane Club was organised by lobbying firm Barton Deakin with between 15 and 25 of the firm's "clients and friends" attending.

While the firms that attended are not known, the diary entry shows they had "expertise in IT, communications and innovation", all areas related to Ms Bates' responsibilities.

Former Liberal lord mayor of Brisbane Sallyanne Atkinson, a lobbyist with Barton Deakin, co-hosted the event.

While the latest version of Ms Bates' Contact with Lobbyists Register makes no mention of the lunch, contacts between the firm and the minister's office to organise her attendance were recorded, including an email checking on any dietary requirements.

The absence of the lunch from the official record is just the latest in a long line of issues that have beset Ms Bates.

The minister last year blamed an assistant for failing give her the complete contact register after initially tabling in Parliament an inaccurate version.

The meetings missing from the original version included three with with lobbyist and close factional friend, Santo Santoro.

Ms Bates has also been under fire for holidaying in Bali after taking extended sick leave, reading a copy-cat speech in Parliament and opening an elephant statue that she had previously lambasted.

Mr Newman last week defended Ms Bates, insisting the sacking of her chief of staff showed she was cleaning up her act.

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