Gordon Nuttall: Jailed ex-minister wants to keep taxpayer-funded super
Updated
Disgraced former Queensland minister Gordon Nuttall has told of the "horrors" of being in jail while arguing in the Supreme Court why he should get access to part of his taxpayer-funded superannuation.
Mr Nuttall asked the judge to consider the hardship and cost he had endured for the crime, which he will live with for the rest of his life.
Mr Nuttall was released on parole in July 2015 after serving six years of a 14-year jail sentence for corruption offences while in office.
"Life is not easy to say the least — they are not nice places," he said.
"What has happened hounds me every day and that's something I have to live with.
"But there comes a time when enough's enough Your Honour."
The State Government launched legal action in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to try to claw back part of his $1.5-million in taxpayer-funded superannuation.
Maximum security 'horrors'
Mr Nuttall told the court it "beggars belief" why he was held in a maximum security prison, only spending the last 49 weeks of his incarceration at a prison farm.
Speaking about the sentence, the former Labor MP said he could not understand why authorities kept him in a high-security jail despite his good behaviour and low-risk classification.
"I don't think there's anyone in this courtroom who can begin to comprehend the horrors of that."
He told the court his career and reputation have been destroyed and his marriage has fallen apart.
"I am virtually unemployable for obvious reasons."
The Government's lawyers and Mr Nuttall both agreed he should have access to some of his superannuation, but they were arguing over how much.
The lawyer who represented Treasurer Mark Hinson made submissions arguing between a quarter and a third of the $1.5-million figure was reasonable to claim back, but it was for the judge to decide.
Mr Nuttall argued the superannuation figure to be deducted should reflect the time in which offending happened.
Justice James Douglas reserved his decision.
Nuttall was jailed in 2009 for receiving secret payments from businessmen while he was a senior member of the Beattie Labor government, between 2002 and 2005.
This included $360,000 from mining magnate Ken Talbot and more than $150,000 from businessman Brendan McKennariey to secure $3.6 million in government work.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, public-sector, alp, brisbane-4000, qld
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