Gordon Nuttall's time runs out on $82,000 fine

GORDON Nuttall could stay in jail indefinitely if he fails to meet a deadline today to pay an $82,000 fine imposed by parliament.

CROOKED Queensland politician Gordon Nuttall could stay in jail indefinitely if he fails to meet a deadline today to pay an $82,000 fine imposed by state parliament.

The once high-flying Labor minister has cried poor after handing over $700,000 in proceeds-of-crime restitution, arising from his convictions for accepting bribes.

If Nuttall does not pay the additional $82,000 fine slapped on him by MPs, his fate will become one of the first orders of business for the new Liberal National Party-dominated parliament when it convenes next week.

Potentially, parliament could order that he remain in jail until he stumps up. Nuttall will be eligible for parole in about three years.

The 12 months he was given to pay expires today, and clerk of parliament Neil Laurie confirmed yesterday the money had not been received. Nor had there been any communication from Nuttall.

He is expected to be given until close of business on Monday to settle the sum he was fined for failing to declare the pecuniary interest of almost $500,000 in secret payments from late mining magnate Ken Talbot, jailed businessman Harold Shand and a third Brisbane businessman, Brendan McKennariey.

But barrister John Rivett said Nuttall was not in a position to pay parliament because his estate was in the hands of the public trustee for the duration of his prison sentence. "Gordon doesn't have access to a cheque book . . . the public trustee is the one with the assets, and they should be dragged before the parliament, as far as I am concerned," Mr Rivett said.

When he was called before the bar of the Queensland parliament a year ago today, Nuttall protested he did not have the means to pay the heavy fine. MPs were unmoved by his plea to settle for a qualified apology from him.

If payment is not made, Mr Laurie will report to the new parliament when it meets for the first time next week.

The house will have a very different complexion from when a gaunt Nuttall last stood before it to plead his case, with Labor reduced to a rump of just seven MPs and Premier Campbell Newman in command of the 78-strong LNP team voted in at the March 24 state election.

Defeated independent MP Rob Messenger, who alone kept in contact with Nuttall after his imprisonment in 2009, said the disgraced Beattie government minister risked spending more time behind bars if he did not pay.

"Parliament itself may impose a jail sentence. It's the highest court in the land," he said.

Nuttall, 58, appears to retain some assets after selling a property at Woodgate, north of Brisbane, that was home to his daughter, Kim, and her four children, to settle $700,000 in proceeds-of-crime orders obtained by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission. On receipt of the funds last September, the anti-corruption agency returned the sale balance of $60,000 to Nuttall and lifted a restraining order over his family home at Sandgate, in Brisbane's north, valued at more than $800,000. A property search yesterday showed that the home, purchased in 1997 for $392,000, was still listed in Nuttall's name.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP