Mark Bailey won’t confirm whether emails related to official business

Mark Bailey has refused to answer questions about an email saga that has dogged the state government, insisting Queenslanders were not interested in the issue.

Minister Mark Bailey has refused to say whether his private email about a director-general candidate related to official business, despite conceding the senior position reported to the Premier of the day.

Mr Bailey today refused to answer several questions about the email saga that’s dogged the government for months, instead insisting the matter had been “thoroughly scrutinised” and that Queenslanders weren’t interested.

It follows Speaker Curtis Pitt’s ruling late yesterday that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would not be referred to parliament’s ethics committee following allegations she misled the House when she said she hadn’t used her private email for official purposes in 2017.

In a statement to the Speaker, Ms Palaszczuk conceded there might be different interpretations of what “official purposes” means and that it was her honest belief that she hadn’t used a private account for business when she told parliament “no”.

“Words can mean different things to different people,” she wrote.

Queensland Transport Mark Bailey speaks during Question Time at Parliament House in Brisbane last month. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Mr Bailey would not say whether he agreed that words could mean different things to different people, instead saying the Premier had needed to make the submission to the Speaker.

Asked whether he took his 2015 email about a potential director-general candidate to be discussing the work of a senior bureaucrat and government policy, the Minister said every email had been scrutinised by the Crime and Corruption Commission.

Pressed further on whether he thought his email was discussing government policy, he repeated the matters had been “thoroughly scrutinised”.

Asked whether a director-general worked for the government or for the Labor Party, Mr Bailey said they worked for the Premier of the day.

Pressed on whether that then meant his 2015 email was about government business, the Minister repeated the emails had been scrutinised.

“They’ve been looked at,” he said.

“They’ve been investigated.

“This matter has been done to death to be quite frank and I don’t think people are that interested in something that was decided upon three and a half to four years ago.”

Mr Bailey said Queenslanders wanted to see jobs rolled out, infrastructure and a strong health response.

He wouldn’t say whether he regretted sending the three emails to the Premier’s private account, again repeating the matters had been thoroughly canvassed and had closed.

Deputy Premier of Queensland Dr Steven Miles at a press conference. Pics Tara Croser.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the Speaker’s ruling proved the Premier did not have a case to answer.

“All of these communications have been through very detailed processes and this is just another one,” he said.

“This process again confirmed that the process has been appropriate and that the decision that has been made by various independent officers is appropriate.”