Mark Bailey in hot water for email use again

ENERGY union boss Peter Simpson sent expletive-ridden emails to Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s private account, demanding he intervene in an industrial dispute, new documents obtained under Right to Information laws have revealed.

ENERGY union boss Peter Simpson sent expletive-ridden emails to Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s private account, demanding his “star recruit” intervene in an industrial dispute.

New documents also show Mr Bailey directed an ETU official to contact him on his private [e-mail] account on February 16, 2015, the day he was officially sworn in as Energy Minister following Labor’s election win.

In an email sent five months after Labor came to power in 2015, Mr Simpson said he was “a f---ing angry man” and lambasted Mr Bailey and his staff for not doing enough to resolve a dispute with Ergon energy.

Mr Simpson complained to Mr Bailey that the union was being ignored despite helping Labor win the election.

“I’ve spent the past 5 months or so talking up this Government and our star recruit, you, telling all and sundry that asked how you were going as our new Minister, that all was ticketyboo,” Mr Simpson wrote in an email to Mr Bailey’s yahoo account on June 30, 2015.

“My pride, given the amount of effort and strings I had to pull to get you there have all kept me in defence mode, well not tonight.

“Why are we having to take industrial action against a Government we put there?”

Transport Minister Mark Bailey is facing fresh scrutiny over his private email usage. Picture: AAP/Claudia Baxter

Mr Simpson sent other emails in June 2015 complaining that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and then Treasurer Curtis Pitt were too difficult to get hold of.

The union boss raged about being “kept out of the loop” on talks about energy company mergers and criticised Ms Trad for ignoring a request for coffee.

He said the ETU had abided by a request from Ms Palaszczuk to take “a backwards step in relation to allowing the new Government space to fill key positions” after the election but was no longer willing to be left out of decision making.

“As you would know the ETU and Labor have not always had the greatest of relationships but now that we’ve collectively won the unwinnable election together I held out some hope of a more respectful relationship. I am not seeing that Comrades and neither are quite a few others,” he said.

The tranche of documents, released to The Australian newspaper under Right to Information laws, also reveal Mr Bailey sought advice about senior appointments from union officials and discussed possible roles with a PhD student at the University of Queensland using his yahoo account.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has continued to attack Bailey over the email use this week. Picture: AAP/Dan Peled

The emails are the latest to be released in a continuing saga over Mr Bailey’s use of private emails to discuss official business.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington on Friday tabled in parliament a separate set of emails to another private account used by Mr Bailey and called on Ms Palaszczuk to sack him.

But Mr Bailey told parliament the corruption watchdog was aware of his keepqldnuclearfree@gmail account, which he said he no longer used.

“The existence of this account was known in the previous emails considered by the CCC,” he said.

“One of the emails that was considered by the CCC told people not to send emails to that address.”

Mr Bailey was previously cleared of corrupt conduct by the CCC over his emails but the watchdog rebuked him over his use of the yahoo account and his attempts to delete it.

Ms Palaszczuk was this year forced to issue tougher ministerial guidelines after the saga and Mr Bailey said he had abided by them.