Gordon Nuttall, the once-prominent Queensland Labor minister, has passed away at the age of 71, following a diagnosis of stage four kidney cancer earlier this year. His political journey began when he was elected as the Labor MP for Sandgate in 1992, a position he held until 2006. Throughout his career, he held various significant roles, including serving as the deputy chair of the Criminal Justice Committee from 1996 to 1998, as well as the minister for industrial relations and later as the health minister from 2004 to 2005 under the premiership of Peter Beattie.
However, Nuttall’s legacy is notably overshadowed by a conviction for corruption and perjury. In 2009, he was found guilty of accepting over $500,000 in bribes from two businessmen for facilitating lucrative government contracts. This scandal surfaced during an investigation into potential falsehoods related to the case of Jayant Patel. In a landmark decision, he received a 14-year prison sentence—the longest ever given to an Australian politician—and was released in 2015 after serving six years.
Despite his troubled past, Nuttall consistently maintained his innocence regarding his actions, asserting in 2022 that while he had made mistakes, he had never intentionally set out to do wrong. He leaves behind a family, including his former partner, children, and grandchildren.