Disgraced former Queensland state Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has died at the age of 71, following a battle with kidney cancer.
Nuttall was jailed for seven years in 2009 for receiving more than $500,000 in corrupt payments from two businessmen he then helped to secure lucrative government contracts.
The court of appeal in 2011 ruled Nuttall’s conduct was so serious that his total jail time should be extended from 12 to 14 years.
He was finally released in 2015, after spending six years behind bars.
Former premier Queensland premier Peter Beattie condemned Nuttall’s actions as a profound betrayal of public trust.
‘He betrayed the people of Queensland, his ministerial colleagues, the state government and me,’ Mr Beattie said in 2023.
In his later years, Nuttall spoke publicly about the harsh conditions he endured at Wolston Maximum Security Prison in Wacol, describing being treated ‘exactly the same as the worst of the worst’ inmates.
‘I think the hardest part was dealing with the enormity of the sentence. When I first went in, I just could not see past the horizon; I just thought, I’m not going to make it,’ he told the Courier Mail.
Disgraced former Queensland state Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has died at the age of 71, following a battle with kidney cancer
‘I honestly didn’t think I would make it. It was a day-by-day thing. Every morning I’d wake up and pray to make it through.’
His family said they are ‘devestated’ by his death.
‘Now is the time he should be left to rest in peace,’ they said.
Born in Brisbane, Nuttall began his career as a state organiser for the Electrical Trades Union before entering parliament in 1992 as the member for Sandgate, a seat he held until his resignation in 2006.
He held the primary industries, health and industrial relations portfolios in cabinet.
