Premier Will Hodgman and Mr Brooks agreed it was appropriate that he step aside from his ministerial responsibilities while the audit takes place. 

Mr Brooks began a process to divest himself of all business interests, including his consulting firm Maintenance Systems Solutions, shortly before he was appointed to cabinet in February. 

That process is still ongoing four months on. 

Mr Hodgman told a press conference Mr Brooks had “misunderstood” questions from Labor MP Scott Bacon when he wrongly told a budget estimates hearing he did not use a MSS email account.

Mr Brooks corrected the record within 10 minutes, telling the hearing he had an active MSS account he used for personal reasons. 

The Premier said he had not seen video footage of the hearing, but had read the transcript. 

“Once Mr Brooks realised he had provided...  information that was not adequate in terms of responses to those questions he corrected the record,” Mr Hodgman said. 

Mr Hodgman said Mr Brooks agreed there was a perception of a conflict of interest and that Mr Morgan should conduct a thorough audit of the email account. 

The report is expected to take several weeks, but Mr Hodgman stressed he had asked for Mr Morgan to provide it as soon as possible. 

Labor and the Greens derided Mr Hodgman’s response, with Greens leader Cassy O’Connor saying the audit was irrelevant to the fact Mr Brooks had deliberately misled Parliament.

“A temporary reassignment of Mr Brooks' portfolio responsibilities is a manifestly inadequate response from the Premier,” Ms O’Connor said.

Opposition Leader Bryan Green said footage of the incident showed clearly that “Mr Brooks was simply lying”. 

“Mr Brooks lied three times in quick succession to the estimates hearing and got caught and yet the Premier has shown a fundamental weakness in leadership by swallowing his excuse that he misunderstood the line of questioning,” Mr Green said.

Mr Hodgman said the auditor would assess if Mr Brooks used the MSS email account to communicate with constituents, but said the main question was whether the account had been used for business purposes.

Former Labor Deputy Premier Steve Kons, who was forced to resign after he made inaccurate statements to Parliament, said he had sympathy for Mr Brooks.

“He forgot about an email account… it’s got no bearing on his ability to be a minister,” Mr Kons said. “It’s no big deal.”