Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk fumes as private email saga blows up again

In a fiery press conference address, an angry Annastacia Palaszczuk has delivered an ultimatum to critics who say she is acting “dodgy” over Crime and Corruption Commission revelations she had a second private email account.

The Premier is acting “dodgy” in hiding a string of personal emails that might prove she lied to parliament, the Opposition alleges.

Annastacia Palaszczuk today fronted a fiery press conference in which she repeatedly wouldn’t give a yes or no answer as to whether she’d ever used her private email accounts - [e-mail] and [e-mail] - for government business.

It comes after she’d previously told parliament she had never used a private email for government business.

But asked again today repeatedly, a defiant Ms Palaszczuk wouldn’t give a simple answer.

“As I’m saying to you, if you have an allegation put it to me,” the Premier said.

“It has been through all of the processes. So what is your allegation?”

Asked if she stood by what she’d told parliament, she said: “I always believe what I say in parliament to be correct.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

“I take my integrity very seriously,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said there were a raft of questions that Ms Palaszczuk needed to answer, but had refused to do over the past week.

“Today, the conduct of the Premier’s behaviour suggests to me there are things in there that need to be answered that she’s not prepared to do,” he said.

“The Premier said if there’s an allegation to put it – well I allege there are things in those emails she doesn’t want everyday Queenslanders to see.

“And that is dodgy and we deserve answers, everybody in this state deserves answers.

“And the behaviour that was just witnessed at that press conference, to me, suggests that this is an issue we must continue to pursue, not for us, but for everyday Queenslanders to restore trust in the way that their government operates and to show that integrity in government matters.”

Mr Crisafulli said Queenslanders deserved to know whether government business was conducted over private emails.

“Unless the emails are released, well then people will suspect the behaviour is dodgy,” he said.

“The CCC boss says that conducting business on a private account is a corruption risk.

“Now the Premier, with one decision, could remove any ambiguity.

“We’re told that the number (of emails) is less than 20 ... print them out, table them, and restore transparency and restore credibility. That’s all I’m asking for.

“... When they’re released we will then know what government business there was, whether or not it smells, and whether or not the people of Queensland deserve further answers and that’s not too much to ask.”

In response to Mr Crisafulli’s comments, a spokesman for the Premier pointed to Ms Palaszczuk’s previous comments that she stands by her integrity, the emails have been retained and they have gone through the RTI process.

Queensland Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

It was revealed on Friday that the Premier did reply from one of her private accounts to an email from Transport Minister Mark Bailey.

However, it was not in response to a 2015 email from his mangocube account that discussed the “ideological perspective” of Paul Simshauser, who was later appointed director-general of energy and water.

The CCC, which was fronting a regular Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee hearing that day, could not say whether the Premier’s reply was about government business.

Ms Palaszczuk said today she didn’t believe the email matter was “a mess”.

“Everything that has been done, has been done,” she said.

“I said that I had a private email account and the emails in question have been through the RTI process and they have all been retained.

“I have been absolutely upfront and honest.”

A Right to Information application by The Courier-Mail for any potential emails between Ms Palaszczuk’s [e-mail] account and Mr Bailey’s ‘mangocube’ account didn’t identify any documents to which the “RTI Act provides a right of access”.

The CCC forwarded four emails, which were sent between the private accounts of Mr Bailey and the Premier, to the Department of Premier and Cabinet to determine if they were public records.

CCC Chair Alan Macsporran on Friday said none of the emails revealed “any nefarious, so-called corrupt purpose”.