[2] Bates was awarded the Prime Minister's Centenary of Federation Medal (2001) and the Telstra Business Woman of the Year (AusIndustry category) in 2000.

[3][4] In April 2012, Bates was appointed the Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts as part of Campbell Newman's first Cabinet.

[11] In 2012, Ros Bates' son, Ben Gommers, was at the centre of a scandal accusing him of being improperly appointed to a high paying public servant position.

Previously, Bates had undergone intensive high dose antibiotic therapy through a catheter threaded directly into her heart for six weeks due to a shoulder infection.

[18] AHPRA, the body overseeing the national health practitioner laws concluded that Bates did not intend to provide misleading information and consider the matter to be closed.