‘Not a priority’: Minister failed to act on key ‘Mangocube’ recommendation

Minister Mick de Brenni failed to act on a key recommendation of a CCC investigation into the Mangocube scandal, giving ministers a ‘free pass’ to use private email accounts to send public records.

Palaszczuk Government Minister Mick de Brenni dismissed a review of the Public Records Act, a key recommendation of the CCC investigation into the Mangocube scandal, The Courier-Mail can reveal.

Ousted State Archivist Mike Summerell said he was told by a senior bureaucrat in Mr de Brenni’s department in 2018 that his review of the Public Records Act signed off by the Crime and Corruption Commission was “not a priority for the Minister”.

“Rather than fix the issues I raised; the government did the opposite and did everything it could to stop me from addressing them,’’ he said.

Mr Summerell said a review was necessary to examine “the many loopholes” that stopped he and the CCC from pursuing further action against Transport Minister Mark Bailey for alleged multiple breaches of the Act.

Mr Summerell also revealed he was banned from contacting ministers to review how they managed their private email accounts.

Minister for Public Works and Procurement Mick de Brenni. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

He told the Courier-Mail this effectively gave ministers a “free pass” even though several were caught with public records in their private email accounts in the investigation.

“I found it totally unbelievable that the review of the Act was not seen as a priority for this Government, a Government elected on a platform featuring transparency, accountability and integrity,” he said.

“Alan MacSporran from the CCC publicly urged the Palaszczuk Government to take urgent action to close the legislative loopholes exposed by its investigation.’’

Mr Summerell added: “The most significant action that was needed to address the multiple issues impacting recordkeeping was the review of the act itself, yet rather than being prioritised and promoted as a flagship integrity project it was stopped and never restarted.

“Throughout my time as State Archivist I sought to restart the review of the act and failing that promote key individual amendments that were urgent to address the appalling standard of recordkeeping in Queensland. ‘’

He said he was disappointed the CCC did not follow up on the recommendations they had publicly supported.

“Sadly, a feature of the Queensland integrity framework is how easy it is for behaviour that is at best unethical to slip through the cracks because of inadequacies in the legislation.”

The government’s review of the Public Records Act, started in 2015, took on extra significance in the wake of Mr Summerell’s investigation with the CCC into Mark Bailey’s use and subsequent deletion of the private email account - [e-mail].

Transport Minister Mark Bailey. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Josh Wonning

In September 2017, Mr MacSporran said that Mr Bailey – who he described as “extremely lucky” - had technically not breached the Act by deleting his private account, because it had been reactivated, meaning the emails hadn’t been “disposed of” under the law.

However, Mr MacSporran said even if the account had been permanently deleted, it would have been hard to prosecute Mr Bailey because the Public Records Act and Right to Information Act don’t contain provisions for people to be prosecuted for those types of behaviour.

Mr Summerell urged the government to close the many loopholes in the laws that were identified by himself and the CCC.

“At present you end up with a fundamental breach of the act where you haven’t dealt with the records appropriately, but you can’t be prosecuted,” he said, urging the government to close the legal loopholes as an urgent priority.

While the Premier introduced new ministerial guidelines banning the use of private email accounts for ministerial business in 2018, Mr Summerell said the Act was “still full of holes” meaning it still could be “breached at will with no consequences”.

Mr Summerell added: “It is an offence to dispose of public records without authority - but nobody has the power under the act to prosecute you, it is a ridiculous situation” he said.

“As state archivist I could investigate a potential breach, confirm it had happened, confirm it was a breach of the act, the act would provide a penalty, yet I could as state archivist take no action against you, as the act did not provide any powers for me to prosecute.”

“It is an offence to dispose of public records without authority…but if you don’t make them at all there are no penalties - so don’t make records - it is breach of the act but there are no penalties for it. ‘’

Former state archivist Mike Summerell.

Mr Summerell made recommendations to Minister Leanne Enoch on how to repair the Public Records Act. He said the recommendations were endorsed by the CCC.

Those recommendations included:

The State Archivist undertake an urgent review of the processes in place for all current Ministers and Ministerial staff in managing public records created or received within their private email accounts.

The State Archivist reviews all guidance and retention and disposal schedules relevant to Ministers.

The State Archivist contacts former Ministers of the last two Governments to request that they review their private email accounts for public records that may be in their possession.

The State Archivist develop a priority set of mandatory guidelines for implementation.

An urgent amendment of the Public Records Act to include a requirement that all public authorities must comply with mandatory guidelines issues by the State Archivist, and

An alliance of integrity agencies is established including the State Archivist, Information Commissioner, Integrity Commissioner, Auditor-General, Ombudsman, Crime and Corruption Commissioner and Public Service Commissioner to raise awareness and promote the importance of recordkeeping for good governance and government accountability.

Mr Summerell stressed his report to Ms Enoch was completely independent of a separate report he had previously provided to the CCC.

“The CCC gave me permission to issue my own report to my Minister – Ms Enoch - on the potential breaches of the Public Records Act and my recommendations for actions,” Mr Summerell said.