Secret report says Queensland ministers’ private email use widespread

Palaszczuk government frontbenchers Steven Miles and Mick de Brenni used their private email accounts for official purposes as part of a ‘widespread’ and ‘disturbing’ practice, a secret report has revealed.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Attila Csaszar

Palaszczuk government frontbenchers Steven Miles and Mick de Brenni used their private email accounts for official purposes as part of a “widespread” and “disturbing” practice among ministers and staff members that has since been banned, a secret report from the State Archivist has revealed.

On Tuesday Mr Miles, who is now Queensland’s Deputy Premier, told a budget estimates hearing he had not used a private email for work purposes since the Premier changed ministerial guidelines in 2018. In 2017, documents released under Right to Information laws revealed Mr Miles had used his personal email address for government business, which he said he had done to send himself documents to print at home.

The issue was reignited on Monday after it was revealed by opposition integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson during an estimates hearing that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s private email address — [e-mail] — apparently had received communications from Transport Minister Mark Bailey via his private email account, [e-mail] in 2015.

The Crime and Corruption Commission in 2017 investigated Mr Bailey’s use of the email account for back-channel correspondence and later deleting the account, finding he had broken ministerial guidelines but no proof of corrupt conduct.

A statutory investigation at the same time conducted by the State Archivist into Mr Bailey’s email use found evidence that the use of private email accounts by ministers for official purposes was “relatively widespread”.

A report of the investigation, handed to the government in September 2017 but not officially released, found evidence that Mr Miles, then environment minister, and Mr de Brenni, then housing and public works minister, had used their “private email accounts for official purposes” between 2015 and 2017.

“Whilst the investigation focused on the private email account of Minister Bailey it was extremely clear that the receipt and creation of public records in the private email accounts of other ministers and ministerial staff was widespread,” the report says.

It says ministerial staffers were “frequently engaging directly with the minister” via their private email accounts between 2015 and 2017.

“The widespread nature and frequency of this practice was disturbing,” the report says.

On Monday, an email tabled in parliament by Ms Simpson showed Mr Bailey apparently briefing Ms Palaszczuk about the ideological stance of Paul Simshauser, who later became director-general of the Department of Energy and Water Supply.

Asked if she had been the recipient of any emails from the controver­sial mangocube6 account, Ms Palaszczuk said she would “have to go back and check”.

Asked if she had ever had a BigPond email account Ms Palaszczuk said she “did not recall” and “would have to check”.

“Have you ever had an email address [e-mail]?” Ms Simpson asked.

“Yes, I have,” the Premier replied.

Ms Palaszczuk said she had been upfront about her email use before her change to the Ministerial Handbook, which banned the practice.