Corruption watchdog considers report into minister's private emails

A report into Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey's use of a private email address has been forwarded to the state corruption watchdog.

Mr Bailey has been under fire for deleting a private email account following reports he was contacted at the address by the Electrical Trades Union over the merger of Energy Super and Victoria's Equip Super.

A report into Minister Mark Bailey's emails has been handed to the CCC.Credit: Glenn Hunt

An RTI application for the correspondence was rejected on the grounds the minister's old email account - [e-mail] - was "closed", or deleted.

Under the Public Records Act, ministers' public records, including emails, must not be destroyed without the authorisation of the State Archivist.

Mr Bailey said he was not aware of the RTI at the time, that he deleted the account because he could not control who emailed him at that address, and later announced he would reactive his email address.

The LNP referred the issue to the Crime and Corruption Commission, which advised it had retrieved more than 30,000 emails with Mr Bailey's consent.

Many of the emails were from the time before Mr Bailey became an elected official and would not be relevant, the CCC said.

The CCC asked the director-general of Premier and Cabinet to work with the State Archivist to review the emails to determine if any of them were a public record and, if so, whether they were dealt with correctly.

The investigation hit a road bump, when director-general Dave Stewart referred himself to the CCC due to allegations raised in a blog about government contracts awarded to his wife's business.

Mr Stewart was later cleared by the CCC, but the investigation into Mr Bailey's emails continued with a senior Premier and Cabinet departmental officer instead of Mr Stewart, because of a perception of a conflict of interest.

The report into the emails was due to be handed to the CCC on Thursday.

A CCC spokesman confirmed it had received the report from the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

"The CCC will consider the contents of the report before determining whether to investigate this matter," the spokesman said.

"The CCC will make no further comment on this matter whilst it considers the report."

In question time, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was asked about reports in The Australian that Mr Bailey used his Yahoo account to correspond with his director-general.

Ms Palaszczuk replied: "Those matters are currently before the CCC."

Earlier this year, CCC integrity services director Kylee Rumble said the allegations against Mr Bailey, if proved, would amount to corrupt conduct.