Former Qld Labor minister Gordon Nuttall dies of cancer, aged 71

Disgraced former Queensland Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has died, aged 71.

Gordon Nuttall outside Brisbane Supreme Court.

• Gordon Nuttall’s life inside prison

Disgraced former Queensland Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has died aged 71 after a battle with kidney cancer.

His family released a short statement on Friday saying the former politician had died and that they were “devastated” by the news.

“Now is the time he should be left to rest in peace,” they said, adding that there would be no further comment.

The Woodgate resident was a former minister in the Beattie government, who in July 2023 completed a 14-year jail sentence for taking $360,000 in secret commissions.

A handcuffed Gordon Nuttall in the back of a police van. Picture: Channel 7

He had also been found guilty of official corruption and perjury, and was immediately taken to the Wolston maximum security jail at Wacol after the verdict.

Since his release, Mr Nuttall defended his actions.

“You’re chucked in with the worst of the worst, I was in with some terrible, terrible people, like really bad people and you’re treated exactly the same as them because you’re in a maximum-security prison,” Mr Nuttall once said of his experience.

Gordon Nuttall at his home in Woodgate in 2023. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

But Mr Beattie had accused him of rewriting history while defending referring his minister to the corruption watchdog.

“He betrayed the people of Queensland, his ministerial colleagues, the state government and me,” Mr Beattie said in 2023.