Tasmania's embattled Mining Minister Adam Brooks has been stripped of his ministerial responsibilities while the state's crown solicitor audits his business email account.
Premier Will Hodgman on Friday acknowledged there was a "perception of a conflict of interest" after Mr Brooks appeared to mislead parliament when he said he didn't have an email account with his consultancy company Maintenance Systems Solutions.
"Mr Brooks has explained that he misunderstood the question, thinking it related to business dealings only, and that he subsequently corrected the parliamentary record," the premier said in a statement on Friday evening.
"He has assured me that the email account is used only for personal, non-business related correspondence."
Opposition Leader Bryan Green argued the premier had demonstrated "profound weakness" by allowing Mr Brooks to repeatedly lie to parliament and get away with it.
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"The premier should have either sacked Mr Brooks or demanded that he resign," the Labor leader said in a statement.
"Mr Brooks lied three times in quick succession to the estimates hearing and got caught and yet the premier has shown a fundamental weakness in leadership by swallowing his excuse that he misunderstood the line of questioning."
Mr Brooks will not receive his ministerial loading while the audit of his MSS email account is conducted, Mr Hodgman said on Friday.
