Gordon Nuttall

AAP

FORMER Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall will have to wait another day before knowing his fate after being convicted of taking corrupt payments totalling $360,000.

Chief judge Patsy Wolfe has reserved her decision until Friday.

Nuttall spent his first night behind bars last night after a Brisbane District Court jury found him guilty on Wednesday on 36 counts of receiving secret commissions.

The 56-year-old former Labor MP shook his head in disbelief and steadied himself against the dock yesterday as the jury pronounced him guilty 36 times as each of the charges were read out.

The jury found he corruptly received 35 payments totalling $300,000 from mining magnate Ken Talbot between 2002 and 2005 and one $60,000 payment on April 12, 2002, from businessman Harold Shand.

As Nuttall was led from the dock he paused for one last embrace with his pregnant daughter Lisa, who sobbed uncontrollably in her father's arms.

Nuttall repeatedly maintained his innocence, electing to give evidence in his own trial saying he had done nothing wrong by accepting the money in what he called "a private arrangement between personal friends".

Premier Anna Bligh and former premier Peter Beattie both told the court Nuttall never declared a conflict of interest in cabinet meetings when matters relating to Mr Talbot and Mr Shand were being discussed.

Mr Beattie, who appointed Nuttall a minister in 2001, told AAP: "He betrayed my trust and there can be no excuses".

Ms Bligh declined to comment.

Prosecutors say a 10-year jail sentence for a former NSW government minister is a benchmark for what former Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall should serve.

Judge Wolfe on Thursday heard submissions from prosecutor Ross Martin, SC, and defence barrister John Rivett.

Mr Martin told the court a 10-year sentence was the appropriate starting point for Nuttall, whose crimes were "as serious as you can imagine".

However, Mr Martin urged the court to impose cumulative sentences on at least two of the charges relating to the separate payments from Mr Talbot and Mr Shand.

This could potentially see Nuttall jailed for 14 years.

Mr Martin used the sentence of former NSW prisons minister Rex Jackson as a comparable case.

In 1987 Jackson was given a 10-year sentence, but served seven-and-a-half, for taking payments to let prisoners out of jail.

Mr Martin said this 10-year sentence was "a benchmark against which Mr Nuttall can be sentenced".

However, Mr Martin made it clear the crown considered Nuttall's offending to be more serious that Jackson's.

"(Nuttall) compromised others by drawing them into his scheme ... and he did so for what can only be described as greed to increase the family's wealth," he said.

"The brazenness of his offending ... speaks of a lack of fear of capture and an utter lack of remorse.

"This offending was more serious than Jackson."

Mr Rivett made an impassioned plea for the court to reject the crown's request for cumulative sentences.

He said Nuttall's family had already endured "three years of hell" since the charges were laid, and that his client's career had been laid waste.

"His career, his reputation and his future employability are decimated, and at his age that's a crisis," Mr Rivett said.

However, Mr Martin said Nuttall had been responsible for his career's demise through his own criminal behaviour.