Queenslanders kept in the dark over Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s ‘private’ emails

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has copped a grilling over how she used her private email account, after the corruption watchdog revealed some emails linked to the account appeared to be public records. Opposition Leader David Crisafulli asked the Premier whether she had used her stacia1@bigpond.com account for government business. In reply, the Premier said: “Let me say categorically that the emails in question have been through the RTI process and they have been retained.” Mr Crisafulli then asked whether the Premier denied using her private account for government business. “It’s the same question and let me say it again, the emails have been through the RTI process and they have been retained,” Ms Palaszczuk replied. The Premier said she did not direct Minister Mark Bailey to send an email to her private account. A recent Right to Information application by The Courier-Mail for any potential emails between the two accounts didn’t identify any documents to which the “RTI Act provides a right of access”. The 2015 email has since been deemed by the RTI office at the Department of Premier and Cabinet to relate to a “party-political matter” rather than the affairs of an agency, and therefore wasn’t captured by RTI laws. Manager of Opposition Business Jarrod Bleijie asked the Premier whether she ‘agreed’ the appointment of a director-general was a party political matter. But the question was ruled out-of-order because it was seeking an opinion. Earlier Mr Crisafulli - who said he’s never used a private email for work purposes - said the matter could all be cleared up in a moment. “What we do know is there’s clearly some business that’s been conducted on a private email account,” he said. “If the issue is one of that it’s minor, that it’s irrelevant, it’s something that’s occurred, we’ll accept that. “But why wouldn’t that be revealed? “Why wouldn’t we have a situation where the Premier would say I’m not going to release my private emails that relate to my capacity as a private citizen, fair enough, but this is completely different. “We’re talking about ... emails communicating whether or not somebody is worthy for a government position. “I think that is fair and reasonable.” It comes as Queenslanders are being kept in the dark over how Annastacia Palaszczuk has used her private email account, after the corruption watchdog revealed some emails linked to the account appeared to be public records. The Premier yesterday would not release “less than 20” emails related to stacia1@bigpond.com that the Crime and Corruption Commission assessed while probing Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s mangocube account. It comes after a Right to Information application by The Courier-Mail for any potential emails between the two accounts didn’t identify any documents to which the “RTI Act provides a right of access”. That included a purported 2015 email – tabled by the LNP in Budget Estimates last year – that was sent from the mangocube account to stacia1@bigpond.com. The email discusses Paul Simshauser before his appointment as director-general of energy and water and whether his “ideological perspective (is) contra to ours and contra to our platform”. The email was deemed by the RTI office at the Department of Premier and Cabinet to relate to a “party-political matter” rather than the affairs of an agency, and therefore wasn’t captured by RTI laws. Asked yesterday if she would release the less than 20 emails that the CCC referred to during last year’s Estimates, Ms Palaszczuk would not say. Instead, a spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said the matter had been subject to the same RTI process that all other RTI applications are subjected to. “Decisions are made by independent RTI officers,” he said. In a statement yesterday, a CCC spokesman said a “small number” of the emails “appear to be public records”, but insisted it was not appropriate for the watchdog to release the emails. “The CCC have been advised that Minister Bailey has ensured that they have been retained and stored appropriately,” he said. “It is not the CCC’s role to determine if these emails are public records. That is a decision for the agency responsible for them. “Releasing emails that may be a public record is a decision for the agency responsible for those emails.” When questioned about the email account at a press conference on Tuesday, the Premier said she did not have any concerns. “It’s all gone through the CCC,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “It happened like five years ago. The (Cabinet) handbook has been updated.” The Premier told parliament in 2017 that she had not used her private email account for official purposes. She also denied that the purported mangocube email sent to the stacia1@bigpond.com account that was tabled by the LNP in Estimates last year was work related. In a decision letter for The Courier-Mail’s RTI, the RTI office at the Department of Premier and Cabinet said searches for documents had been conducted by the Premier and her office. “No documents, to which the RTI Act provides a right of access, were identified,” the letter said. The Cabinet handbook was officially amended in 2018, banning the use of private emails for ministerial purposes.