Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has sidelined Energy Minister Mark Bailey after the state’s corruption watchdog found “reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct”.

The Crime and Corruption Commission has been looking at the alleged deletion of emails which are considered public records but which were held on Mr Bailey’s personal This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. account.

Mr Bailey reportedly closed the email account after The Australian newspaper made a right to information (RTI) request to find out if he had used it to communicate with union officials.

The CCC was able to retrieve over 30,000 emails from the account, and found that “a number” of them were considered public records.

The probe found no evidence that Mr Bailey had used the account to negotiate with union officials in a way that would constitute corrupt conduct, it issued a warning about the potential destruction of public records.

“The CCC considers there is sufficient evidence to raise a reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct relating to the potential destruction of public records by the Minister as this may be an offence under the Public Records Act 2002,” it said in a statement.

But the CCC then referred the matter to the State Archivist, as it does not investigate matters to do with the public record.

The corruption watchdog pointed out that several other ministers have been using private email accounts too.

Mr Bailey said he would cooperate with the investigation.

“I don't want this to be an unnecessary distraction from the good work and achievements of the Palaszczuk Government,” he said in a statement.

The Opposition said the findings showed Mr Bailey is not fit to serve as a minister.