Queensland government minister Mark Bailey has been stood aside after a Crime and Corruption Commission finding against him, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Wednesday night.
The CCC had found Mr Bailey raised a "reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct" in destroying work-related emails from his private account and could have committed an offence in doing so.
The corruption watchdog found there was sufficient evidence to refer Mr Bailey to the State Archivist for investigation.
"I met with Mark Bailey tonight and I have asked him to stand aside as minister pending the outcome of the State Archivist investigation into his deactivation of his personal email account," Ms Palaszczuk said in a statement on Wednesday night.
"...Mr Bailey has assured me he will fully cooperate with the State Archivist's investigation. The acting arrangements for Mr Bailey's portfolio responsibilities will be announced tomorrow (Thursday)."
Mr Bailey said he had cooperated fully with the investigation into his private emails.
"And [I] will continue to do so, as this matter is now with the State Archivist and is not yet finalised," he said.
"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."
Mr Bailey, the Minister for Main Roads, Energy and Water Supply, came under fire earlier this year for deleting a private email account following reports he was contacted at that address by the Electrical Trades Union over the merger of Energy Super and Victoria's Equip Super.
An application for the release of correspondence under Right to Information laws was rejected on the grounds the minister's email account was "closed".
Mr Bailey then announced he would reactivate the account, before the Liberal National Party referred the matter to the CCC.
"In reviewing the emails, the CCC did not identify any evidence to support allegations Minister Bailey had used his personal email account to engage in negotiations with the Electrical Trades Union that would amount to corrupt conduct," the CCC said in its statement.
"However, 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."
During its review, the CCC said it identified a number of other ministers using private email accounts.
"No corrupt conduct was identified," the CCC said.
"The use by a minister of a private email account for ministerial purposes is not of itself corrupt conduct.
"The types of emails, their content, conduct and decisions relating to such emails and how the emails are treated if they are public records needs to be considered to determine whether it is corrupt conduct.
"...The CCC considers the use of private email addresses by any Member of Parliament or public servant for official business lacks transparency and is a corruption risk."
Earlier, Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said Ms Palaszczuk had no choice but to stand Mr Bailey down with immediate effect.
"The Premier must finally act decisively and stand this minister down. It is now an issue of the Premier's leadership," he said.
"If Annastacia Palaszczuk is serious about accountability and transparency, she has one last chance to show some guts and leadership tonight.
"This finding against Mark Bailey is damning and Annastacia Palaszczuk must move swiftly to remove this minister.
"The standard you walk by is the standard you accept."
- with Felicity Caldwell