Criminal Politicians

Wikipedia's list of Australian politicians convicted of crimes
Wednesday, 16 August 2017


There appears to be a lot more crime of late.
Federal[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	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]
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	[2][3]
3	Michael Cobb	1998	National	Rorting travel expenses	Fined $14,000, 2-year suspended jail term		[4]
4	Andrew Theophanous	2002	Labor	Bribery and fraud	6 years jail		[5]
5	Pauline Hanson	2003	Pauline Hanson'sOne Nation	Electoral fraud	3 years jail	Subsequently, acquitted and found to have been jailed wrongly	[6]
6	Craig Thomson	2014	Labor/Independent	Theft and fraud	12 months jail with 9 months suspended.[7]		[8]
7	Steve Irons	2015	Liberal	Unlicensed drink driving	4-month good behaviour order		[9]

New South Wales[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	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	[10]
2	Rex Jackson	1987	Labor	Accepting bribes	10 years	Former Minister for Corrective Services. Increased from 7½ years on appeal	[11]
3	Tony Packard	1993	Liberal	Unlawful use of listening devices	Fined $1000	Offences were committed while operating a used-car business, prior to entering parliament	[12]
4	Barry Morris	1996	Liberal	Making death threats	1 year	Decreased from 2½ years on appeal	[13]
5	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	[14]
6	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.	[15][16]
7	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.	[17][18]
8	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	[19][20][21][22][23]
9	Ian Macdonald	2017	Labor	Misuse of public office	10 years (non-parole period of 7 years)	Corruptly issuing of lucrative mining licences at Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley	[24][25][26][27]

Queensland[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	William Hamilton	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[28]
2	Brian Austin	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	15 months		[29]
3	Leisha Harvey	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months	7 months served in home detention	[29]
4	Don Lane	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months		[29]
5	Geoff Muntz	1990	National	misappropriating public funds	12 months		[29]
6	Keith Wright	1993	Labor	child sex offences	8 years (non-parole period 4 years), paroled after 5½ years	Former Opposition Leader	[30]
7	Bill D'Arcy	2000	Labor	child sex offences	11 years (non-parole period 7 years)		[31]
8	Merri Rose	2005	Labor	extortion	1½ years		[30]
9	Karen Struthers	2007	Labor	Drink driving	$1000 fine and loss of licence for 10 months		[32]
10	Gordon Nuttall	2009, 2011	Labor	Corruption, receiving secret commissions, theft	15 years (non-parole period 10 years)		[33]

Tasmania[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	Brenton Best	2002	Labor	Drink driving	fine and loss of licence		[34][35]
2	Terry Martin	2011	Independent	Producing child pornography and sexual penetration of a child under the age of 17	suspended sentence		[36]

South Australia[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	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	[37][38][39]

Victoria[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Reference
1	Carolyn Hirsh	2004	Labor	Drink driving	$600 and driving ban of 6 months		[40]
2	Andrew Olexander	2004	Liberal	Drink driving			[40]
3	Carolyn Hirsh	2006	Labor	Drink driving and driving whilst disqualified	$600 and driving ban of 1 year		[41]
4	Adem Somyurek	2009	Labor	Driving whilst disqualified	$300 and 1-month suspended gaol sentence		[42]

Western Australia[edit]

	Name	Year	Party	Offence	Sentence	Notes	Ref
1	Julian Stuart	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[43]
2	George Taylor	1891	Labor	conspiracy in connection with the Queensland shearers' strike	3 years	future state MP	[44]
3	Frederick Baglin	1923	Labor	stealing as a servant	3 years	sitting state MP	[45]
4	Brian Burke	1994	Labor	misappropriating public funds	7 months	former state Premier	[46]
5	Ray O'Connor	1995	Liberal	stealing a Bond Corporation cheque from a parked car	18 months	former state Premier	[47][48]
6	David Parker	1996	Labor	perjury	18 months	former state Deputy Premier, paroled after six months	[49]
7	Wayde Smith	1998	Liberal	perjury	18 months	paroled after six months	[50][51]
8	Graham Burkett	2006	Labor	receiving bribes	14 months	former mayor of Stirling and state MP