List of Australian politicians convicted of crimes

Federal

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
John Curtin	1914	Labor	Failing to comply with a compulsory medical examination for conscription	3 days jail	Later became Prime Minister of Australia; first Prime Minister to be convicted of an offence	[1]
Benjamin Benny	1926	Nationalist	Fraudulent conversion of trust funds	3 years jail		[2]
Derryn Hinch	1987, 2011, 2014	Derryn Hinch's Justice Party	Contempt of court, breaching suppression orders	12 days in prison, 5 months home detention, 50 days in prison	Hinch was a radio announcer at the times of his crimes, and was elected to the Australian Senate in 2016	[3][4]
Michael Cobb	1998	National	Rorting travel expenses	Fined $14,000, 2-year suspended jail term		[5]
Andrew Theophanous	2002	Labor	Bribery and fraud	6 years jail	Served two years and successfully appealed the fraud charge.	[6]
Craig Thomson	2014	Labor/ Independent	Theft	$25,000 fine[7]	Reduced from 12 months jail with 9 months suspended on appeal, 49 charges of fraud dismissed.[8]	[7][9]
Steve Irons	2015	Liberal	Unlicensed drink driving	4-month good behaviour order		[10]
Wilson Tuckey	1967	Liberal	Assault	Fined $50.00	After being convicted of assaulting an Aboriginal man, he was nicknamed "Iron Bar"	[11]

New South Wales

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
Thomas Ley	1947	Nationalist	Murder	Death, later commuted to confinement in Broadmoor Asylum	Involvement with a number of disappearances, including that of Frederick McDonald, his predecessor as MP	[12]
Rex Jackson	1987	Labor	Accepting bribes	10 years	Former Minister for Corrective Services. Increased from 7½ years on appeal	[13]
Tony Packard	1993	Liberal	Unlawful use of listening devices	Fined $1000	Offences were committed while operating a used-car business, prior to entering parliament	[14]
Barry Morris	1996	Liberal	Making death threats	1 year	Decreased from 2½ years on appeal	[15]
Milton Orkopoulos	2008	Labor	33 counts, including child sex and drug offences	13 years and 8 months (non-parole period 9 years)	Decreased from 13 years and 11 months on appeal	[16]
Richard Face	2009	Labor	Making a false statement to the ICAC	Fined $2500, three-year good-behaviour bond	Lied about misusing parliamentary and electoral office staff to help set up a consultancy.	[17][18]
Adam Marshall	2014	National	Mid-range prescribed content of alcohol	Driver's licence suspended for nine months, fined $2,000	Returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.112.	[19][20]
Eddie Obeid	2016	Labor	Misconduct in public office	5 years (non-parole period of 3 years)	Failing to declare his precuniary interest while a member of parliament and subsequent attempts to influence bureaucrats and Labor colleagues so as to benefit his family	[21][22][23][24][25]

Queensland

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
William Hamilton	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[26]
Brian Austin	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	15 months		[27]
Leisha Harvey	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months	7 months served in home detention	[27]
Don Lane	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months		[27]
Geoff Muntz	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months		[27]
Keith Wright	1993	Labor	child sex offences	8 years (non-parole period 4 years), paroled after 5½ years	Former Opposition Leader	[28]
Bill D'Arcy	2000	Labor	child sex offences	11 years (non-parole period 7 years)		[29]
Merri Rose	2005	Labor	extortion	1½ years		[28]
Karen Struthers	2007	Labor	Drink driving	$1000 fine and loss of licence for 10 months		[30]
Gordon Nuttall	2009, 2011	Labor	Corruption, receiving secret commissions, theft	15 years (non-parole period 10 years)		[31]

Tasmania

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
Brenton Best	2002	Labor	Drink driving	fine and loss of licence		[32]
Terry Martin	2011	Independent	Producing child pornography and sexual penetration of a child under the age of 17	suspended sentence		[33]

South Australia

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
Bernard Finnigan	2015	Labor/ Independent	Obtaining access to child pornography	A 15-month suspended sentence with a three-year $1,000 good behaviour bond	Also added to the sex offender register	[34][35][36]

Victoria

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
Carolyn Hirsh	2004	Labor	Drink driving	$600 and driving ban of 6 months		[37]
Dee Ryall	2020	Liberal	Corruption	3 years jail
Carolyn Hirsh	2006	Labor	Drink driving and driving while disqualified	$600 and driving ban of 1 year		[38]

Western Australia

Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Ref
Julian Stuart	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[39]
George Taylor	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[40]
Frederick Baglin	1923	Labor	stealing as a servant	3 years	sitting state MP	[41]
Brian Burke	1994	Labor	misappropriating public funds	7 months	former state Premier	[42]
Ray O'Connor	1995	Liberal	stealing a Bond Corporation cheque from a parked car	18 months	former state Premier	[43][44]
David Parker	1996	Labor	perjury	18 months	former state Deputy Premier, paroled after six months	[45]
Wayde Smith	1998	Liberal	perjury	18 months	paroled after six months	[46][47]
Graham Burkett	2006	Labor	receiving bribes	14 months	former mayor of Stirling and state MP	[48]

See also

• List of Australian political controversies

References

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35. "MLC Bernard Finnigan quits politics after guilty verdict on child porn". ABC News. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
36. "Bernard Finnigan guilty: SA court hands down verdict on child pornography against former SA Labor MP". AdelaideNow. 10 November 2015.
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38. "Vic MP guilty of 2nd drink-drive offence". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 August 2006.
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48. (28 February 2006). "Former WA politician jailed for corruption" – ABC News. Retrieved 11 May 2016.

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