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

Disgraced former state government minister Gordon Nuttall has died aged 71 after a battle with cancer, as stories from his past – including an act against ex-premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen while working as a teller – emerge.

Gordon Nuttall outside Brisbane Supreme Court.

• Gordon Nuttall’s life inside prison

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

His family released a short statement saying they were “devastated’’.

“Now is the time he should be left to rest in peace,” they said.

Mr Nuttall served in several portfolios including health minister in Peter Beattie’s Labor government during the Jayant Patel scandal at Bundaberg Base Hospital.

He was stood down after lying to a parliamentary committee about what he knew of problems at the hospital.

But far worse was to come. He was later found guilty of official corruption over loans totalling $300,000 he had received from the late mining magnate Ken Talbot and another $60,000 from barrister and miner Harold Shand.

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

At a second trial in 2010 he was found guilty of five more counts of official corruption over another $150,000, as well as perjury.

In 2011, Nuttall was taken to parliament in a prison van where a motion was passed finding him guilty of contempt.

His release from jail after serving six years was controversial, involving a secret operation code named “Gumnut’’ in which he was snuck past media waiting outside the Palen Creek prison.

Just six weeks before his release he noticed a lump in his neck while shaving. A biopsy found he had cancer.

After his release Mr Nuttall moved to Woodgate, near Bundaberg where he was heavily involved with the local bowls club.

He always defended his actions and attacked former colleagues for not standing by him.

“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.

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

Mr Beattie has previously accused him of rewriting history.

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

Mr Beattie declined to comment on Friday, other than passing on his condolences to Mr Nuttall’s family.

Nuttall was elected to the seat of Sandgate in 1992, but even before entering parliament courted controversy after leaking the bank details of former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen while working as a teller.

Former Labor ministers Robert Schwarten and Bob Gibbs did not hold back on their condemnation.

Mr Gibbs said he still had not forgiven Mr Nuttall, whom he labelled an “inveterate liar” who never showed remorse for his actions.

“He brought the Labor Party and the government he served in into total disrepute,’’ he said.

Mr Schwarten also said his former colleague would never be forgiven by the Labor Party, which would have expelled him if he had not left of his own volition.

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