Bailey reveals third private email account

Queensland's transport minister has revealed he used a third private email account for official business, in defending himself over revelations of a second one.

Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey

Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey said he remained committed to new ministerial guidelines. (AAP)

Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey has admitted he used a third private email account for official business, as he defended himself against revelations of a second account.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander tabled emails from Mr Bailey's keepqldnuclearfree@gmail.com account in state parliament on Friday, in which he corresponded with ministerial and union figures.

Mr Bailey has previously been cleared by the Crime and Corruption Commission of corrupt conduct over a different private email account he used - mangocube6@yahoo.co.uk.

The transport minister on Friday initially responded to the opposition's claims by stating there was nothing inappropriate about his use of the email account shortly after he was elected to office in 2015, as it was a holdover from his time as an anti-uranium campaigner.

However Mr Bailey then rose again to speak, and revealed he had a third private email account, an Outlook account, which had not previously been made public.

"The existence of this account was considered in the previous CCC investigation," Mr Bailey told parliament.

"If the LNP has any matters of substance to raise, they should do so with the CCC as they have done previously."

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said they were waiting for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to show leadership and sack Mr Bailey and refer him to the corruption watchdog for a second time.

"This is a premier who has clearly lost control of her cabinet," Ms Frecklington said.

"The premier needs to show some backbone and sack him."

Earlier in parliament, Ms Palaszczuk refused calls to sack Mr Bailey, and said the opposition was trying to distract attention from the state budget earlier this week.

The Australian newspaper reported in April on the existence of the Gmail account in conjunction with the Yahoo account, and CCC chair Alan MacSporran in May urged Mr Bailey to release all his private emails or risk the public becoming suspicious about what they contained.

Mr Bailey said he remained committed to new ministerial guidelines imposed after the furore caused by his initial use of a private email account.

The Crime and Corruption Commission investigated Mr Bailey's use and subsequent deletion of the mangocube email account last year.

It found that Mr Bailey's deletion of the account could have been considered a breach of law, but because the emails were found to not contain corrupt material and because the account was recovered he was cleared of any wrongdoing.


Share
3 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world