Premier feels heat on emails scandal

Annastacia Palaszczuk is under pressure to release emails from a private account over questions she may have misled parliament.

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

Annastacia Palaszczuk is under pressure to publicly release emails from her private account over questions she may have misled parliament when she denied using her personal account for government business.

The Queensland Premier lashed out angrily at reporters on Monday under questioning about her use of the [e-mail] email address six years ago. The matter was reignited in December when the Liberal National Party opposition tabled a document during an estimates hearing.

It showed Ms Palaszczuk received an email from energy Minister Mark Bailey in 2015 about the ideological stance of Paul Simshauser, who later became director-general of the Department of Energy and Water Supply.

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

At the time, Ms Palaszczuk told parliament she had not used a personal email address for government business.

She has refused to release further emails that are known to exist, saying it should be left to the formal Right To Information process.

“There’s a process here – it goes through the RTI and all of them (emails) have been retained so if you have an allegation, put it to me,” she said on Monday at a press conference with Mr Bailey, arranged to spruik progress of the Cross River Rail train line.

“What is your point? What is your allegation?

“I have been absolutely upfront and honest. Five or six years ago … you want to keep talking about the past but I’m here to talk about the future.”

Asked whether she had misled parliament when she denied using her personal email account for government business, the Premier said: “I always believe what I say in parliament to be correct.”

The Department of Premier and Cabinet’s RTI office has said the content of the 2015 email is “party-political” in nature and not an agency matter.

CCC boss Alan MacSporran last week fronted a Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee hearing and revealed Ms Palaszczuk had a second personal email that had received communication from Mr Bailey.

He said other emails existed but did not require an official investigation by the CCC.

Mr MacSporran described the use of the private email account as “frankly inappropriate” but was “done for convenience”. He said some of the emails could be categorised as public records.

“In effect what happened is Minister Bailey sent an email to the Premier to one personal email account and when she replied, the reply came from another personal email account,” he said.

He would not reveal what the message was about.

The Premier’s reaction at the press conference on Monday followed a number of questions about the matter from the LNP in parliament last week.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the Premier needed to release the emails to reassure to the public. “Unless the emails are released, well then people will suspect the behaviour is dodgy. ”