INTERNAL emails have shed light on how the Newman Government manages uncomfortable issues, including banning journalists from meetings between the Premier and the Prime Minister, reining in trouble-prone ministers and handling CMC inquiries.

Correspondence obtained by The Courier-Mail under Right to Information laws provides a revealing insight into the Government's media strategy since winning the election a year ago and Premier Campbell Newman's firm grip on what his ministers and staff are allowed to say.

At the helm of Mr Newman's media machine is chief spin doctor Lee Anderson, who not only dictates key messages to media officers but to ministers.

As well as managing media, one of Mr Anderson's primary tasks appears to be putting out spot fires and driving the Government agenda.

Amid the controversial public service cuts, he suggested to his boss that the Government change its message to retaining "frontline services, not staff".

"Where there are two frontline staff doing the work one person could do, then reducing the frontline staff accordingly is reasonable and responsible," he explained in an email to Mr Newman on May 23, 2012.

However, one of the media unit's biggest challenges appeared to be hosing down an "angry" Minister Ros Bates after an embarrassing blunder in which she delivered a speech to Parliament that was a carbon copy of one given by her predecessor the previous year.

Ms Bates, who has since stepped down from the front bench, was furious with her department for not telling her, prompting a warning from her principal adviser Peter Epstein that they needed to avoid a "public dogfight".

"Although you are entitled to be angry with the dept for failing to point this matter out, it's best (to) play with a straight bat in public," Mr Epstein said in an email to Ms Bates on May 25.

Mr Anderson advised Mr Epstein it was a "bad look beating up on departmental staff" and to keep any further comment brief.

However, this was just the beginning of the media headache surrounding Ms Bates after The Courier-Mail revealed her son Ben Gommers' appointment by then Transport director-general Michael Caltabiano was the subject of a Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation.

Mr Caltabiano was also referred to Parliament's ethics committee for making allegedly misleading statements to the estimates hearing that he had no "previous professional knowledge" of Mr Gommers.

But a 2007 lobbyists register listed Mr Caltabiano and Mr Gommers as employees of lobbying firm Entree Vous, along with Mr Gommers' mother, Ms Bates.

Mr Caltabiano has denied any wrongdoing and Mr Gommers' father has defended his son.

The Premier's media machine was clear that responses were not to include anything more than the matter was under investigation and, as such, no further comment would be provided.

It went into overdrive when Mr Anderson sent all ministers an email stating that if asked about Mr Caltabiano, who had been suspended on full pay after allegedly misleading an estimates committee hearing, to parrot lines such as: "We have done what is right. It's now a matter for the ethics committee."

If asked if the Government was paying his legal costs, the reply was to be: "He will be treated the same as every other public servant."

If ministers were asked about Ms Bates being on sick leave, they were to say: "Given the extent of her shoulder surgery . . . it's surprising she's been at work at all."

Originally published as How Premier's team spins the issues