‘Mangocube Law’ to make attempts to delete public records an offence
Officials who try to delete public records will soon be committing an offence under new legislation set to be brought in by the state government that the LNP has already branded the “Mangocube Law”.
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Officials who try to delete public records will soon be committing an offence under new legislation set to be brought in by the state government that the LNP has already branded the “Mangocube Law”.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the Palaszczuk government has quietly accepted a proposal to make the “unlawful attempted disposal” of public records an offence under the state’s public record laws.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey famously deleted his private “mangocube” Yahoo email account in 2017, although the Crime and Corruption Commission was later able to recover with the help of the minister.
Hundreds of public records were found in Mr Bailey’s account, but the CCC ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing – pointing out the records were not permanently disposed of and were recovered.
The government last year commissioned a review of the Public Records Act, which recommended that attempting to unlawfully dispose of public records should be made an offence.
The review suggested such an offence would mainly deal with “unlawful intentional alterations to, and deletions of, electronically stored material that is later recovered or reconstructed”.
It would expand on the existing offence in Queensland that makes it unlawful for records to be disposed of.
In its official response to the report, the government confirmed it supported the recommendation “in principle” and was now considering law changes subject to consultation. Any changes would not be retrospective.
A government spokesman would not say on Friday what the punishment would be for the proposed offence or when law changes would be made.
“The changes to the legislation being considered follow extensive work of the independent panel to modernise Queensland’s public records laws as part the first review of the Public Records Act since it commenced two decades ago,” the spokesman said.
“Targeted consultation has already started with around 200 stakeholders including local governments and further online consultation has been confirmed for coming weeks.”
The state Opposition has seized on the revelations that the government will go ahead with the reforms – labelling it the “Mangocube Law”.
LNP integrity in government spokeswoman Fiona Simpson accused the government of failing to commit to a timeline or details on how it would deliver the “critical integrity measures”.
“There is no clearer admission that the Mark Bailey mangocube saga should never have happened and should be illegal,” Ms Simpson said of the proposed reforms.
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