Estimates analysis: Premier has questions to answer over private email address
Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted in 2018 she was making it “crystal clear” ministers were banned from using private email accounts for official purposes, but now the questions have turned to her.
Steven Wardill
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Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted she was making it “crystal clear” ministers were banned from using private email accounts for official purposes when she updated the rules in 2018.
But the question that looms large after yesterday’s extraordinary Budget estimates hearing is whether the Premier needed to clarify the rules to better inform herself.
Labor-appointed committee chair Linus Power yesterday did his darnedest to disrupt the Opposition’s line of questioning over whether Ms Palaszczuk used her private email account stacia1@bigpond.com in breach of the ministerial handbook back in 2015.
The Premier initially couldn’t remember whether she’d ever even had a Bigpond account but quickly recalled when the Opposition read out the address.
And Ms Palaszczuk didn’t tell the hearing whether she responded when the Opposition produced an email from the private account of Cabinet minister Mark Bailey, who was chastised by Queensland’s corruption watchdog for using private email for public purposes hundreds of times.
That’s critical because the Premier has categorically denied that was the case previously in State Parliament.
There are numerous other questions also.
Did the Crime and Corruption Commission and State Archivist turn up this email when they investigated Mr Bailey? If not, why not?
Mr Bailey was stood aside while he was investigated so what happens if the Premier is subjected to a similar probe?
Why was Mr Bailey even discussing a senior public service role over email at all when the appointment process is supposed to be independent?
And why was the candidate’s ideological perspective relevant to the role?
The only thing “crystal clear” after yesterday’s hearing is that the Premier has questions to answer.
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