Former Qld minister bemoans telling truth

Former Queensland government minister Bruce Flegg has pleaded not guilty to using a mobile phone while behind the wheel of a car and says it was honesty that got him into trouble with police.

Dr Flegg, 61, entered his not guilty plea in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, on the grounds that he was holding his phone, and not using it, when he pulled over to the side of a road in Brisbane's Chapel Hill on April 23 this year.

The court heard Dr Flegg allegedly pulled over on Moggill Road in the early hours of the morning and picked up his phone, while he was "stationary, but not parked".

Dr Flegg initially told Magistrate Elizabeth Hall he would plead guilty to get the matter over and done with, but later changed his mind because he didn't agree that by simply holding his phone, he was "using" it.

If he had pleaded guilty, he would have been fined $341 and been ordered to pay court costs of $90.20.

But instead he will return to court on December 11 to fight the charges that he was driving while using a mobile phone.

Outside court, Dr Flegg said the only reason the police officer who questioned him knew he had picked up his phone at all was because he told him he had.

"I chose to be honest with the police officer, so I was disappointed with their response," he said.

"But that's the way it is and our system is that if a Queenslander doesn't feel they've been treated appropriately or the charge is correct, that they can choose to have it dealt with by a court."

Dr Flegg was dumped from his Housing and Public Works ministry by the Newman LNP government and moved to the backbench.

He then failed to win pre-selection to run again in his safe conservative seat of Moggill at the last election due to a string of controversies involving dealings with his lobbyist son.

It's not the first time he's been back in the spotlight since leaving office.

In June, he won $775,000 in a defamation case against his one-time media adviser Graeme Hallett.

Dr Flegg said he expected the media attention.

"I'm back to being a GP, I don't hold any public positions but I accept that's the way things happen," he said.