Nuttall 'can't understand' why he spent 5 years in maximum security

Disgraced former Labor MP Gordon Nuttall tells court he 'can't understand' why he was made to serve five years in a maximum security jail.

Former Queensland Labor minister Gordon Nuttall (right) leaves the supreme court in Brisbane with son Andrew (c) and daughter Lisa (l), Thursday, Feb. 8, 2017. Nuttall , currently on parole after being convicted for corruption, is attempting to stop the Queensland government from taking his superannuation.(AAP Image/Dave Hunt) NO ARCHIVING. Picture: DAVE HUNT

DISGRACED former MP Gordon Nuttall has told a court it "beggars belief" that he spent five years in a maximum security jail for a non-violent crime.

Nuttall was jailed for official corruption and perjury he committed while he was an MP. He was sentenced to 14 years jail but released on parole after serving six.

Nuttall appeared in court to argue against the State Government's attempt to strip him of up to $1.5 million in superannuation.

Under Queensland law a person in public office can be stripped of government supplied superannuation if convicted of certain offences.

Nuttall told the court he disputed the length of time that should be taken into account and believed the hardships he had been through should be considered.

The state called for the entire 44-month period between Nuttall's first and last offences to be considered. But Nuttall said only the six months the offences occurred in should be considered.

Nuttall said he had repaid more than $700,000 to the state through the sale of his two properties - one of which was in Wide Bay.

He said the court should also consider the personal hardships he had been through. He said it was hard for other people to understand the "horrors" of life in a maximum security prison.

Nuttall said he spent five of the six years in a maximum security prison.

"It beggars belief to be honest," he said.

"To this day I can't understand why the authorities decided to keep me in that facility for that period of time.

"My career has been destroyed, my life has been destroyed, my marriage has fallen apart."

But lawyers for the Treasurer said the conditions of Nuttall's imprisonment were irrelevant and should not be taken into account.

Nuttall said he was not saying "poor me" but wanted the court to understand the hardships he had been through.

"Over a decade I've had to live with this. Every day I've had to live with this," he said.

"But there comes a time when enough is enough."

Justice James Douglas will deliver his judgment at a later date.

ARM NEWSDESK