Queensland MP Mark Bailey, and now former Energy and Roads Minister, is in a whole load of shit for not only using his personal email account for state business, but for deleting the account, which was said to hold public records – things you might wanna hold on to maybe.
Mark, did you not learn anything from Hillary, you damn fool?
To make matters worse, it was a Yahoo account.
In a statement made just before 8pm, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wrote that she had asked Bailey to “stand aside as Minister pending the outcome of the State Archivist investigation into his deactivation of his personal email account“.
She also said Bailey intended to cooperate with investigating authorities, and that his acting replacement will be announced tomorrow.
The Crime Corruption Commission has said that they have found enough evidence to “raise a reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct, relating to the potential destruction of public records”.
If Bailey is found to have incorrectly disposed of a public record, he could be fined about $20K.
The Commission also found that there was no evidence to indicate Bailey used the Yahoo account in question to negotiate with the Electrical Trades Union, which would 100% be corrupt.
The government will be drawing up guidelines for its staff in relation to using their personal emails for public business, following the revelation that more ministers than just Bailey use private email accounts, although they have not been accused of any corrupt conduct.
Still, Bailey seems weirdly unfazed by the heat, posting on Twitter and Facebook earlier today about LNP leader Tim Nicholls finally getting behind the state government’s plan to expand public infrastructure in Cairns with the ever-thrilling Smithfield Bypass. He also released a number of media statements throughout the day about other ongoing infrastructure projects.
In lieu of a .gif, just go watch ‘Utopia‘ and take a shot every time someone says ‘infrastructure’.
In a statement tonight he said:
“I have cooperated fully with the investigation into my private email to date and will continue to do so, as this matter is now with the State Archivist and is not yet finalised.“I don’t want this to be an unnecessary distraction from the good work and achievements of the Palaszczuk Government.
“I stand by my integrity and look forward to the resolution of this investigation which I hope will be carried out as quickly as possible.”
Bailey remains the state MP for the seat of Yeerongpilly in Brisbane‘s south.
Source: The Courier-Mail.
Photo: Mark Bailey MP.
