The Queensland government's top bureaucrat has referred himself to the state's corruption watchdog over allegations raised online about contracts awarded to his wife's business.
A blog post published on the weekend raises questions about almost $700,000 in contracts awarded to public relations company The Comms Team, headed by Pauline Bourke, the wife of Premier's Department director-general Dave Stewart.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Mr Stewart had appropriately referred himself to the Crime and Corruption Commission, but she didn't think there was any wrongdoing.
"There were a lot of inferences and a lot of accusations that were made in relation to that article, and he has done the right thing in self-referring," Ms Palaszczuk said on Tuesday.
"He has sought the integrity commissioner's advice, and the integrity commissioner has assured him he has done the right thing every step of the way."
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Mr Stewart had been tasked with leading an investigation into the alleged misuse of Energy Minister Mark Bailey's private email account.
He's now stood down from that probe, which will be continued by the state archivist.
The Liberal National Party opposition seized on the issue during question time in state parliament on Tuesday, saying if Mr Stewart had stood down while under a corruption probe, then Mr Bailey must do the same.
But the premier stood by her minister, saying Mr Stewart was still her director-general and he'd merely stood down from the probe while the CCC was investigating his own matter.
She said likewise, Mr Bailey was an "outstanding" member of her cabinet who would continue to do his job.
Mr Bailey deleted his private email account earlier this year while it was the subject of a right to information request, although he claimed he didn't know about the request until after deleting it.
The energy minister later reactivated the account and 30,000 emails were retrieved from it, which were being sifted through by Mr Stewart before he removed himself from the investigation.
