Corrupt former Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has been released from a Queensland prison on parole after serving six years of a 14-year sentence.

Nuttall has been serving the longest sentence handed to an Australian politician for corruption, and was granted parole last month.

He left the low-security Palen Creek Correctional Centre, about 100 kilometres south of Brisbane, overnight.

It is understood the 62-year-old was allowed to leave through a back entrance.

He was taken to his daughter and son-in-law's residence at Boondall on Brisbane's north.

Just after 6:00am he left the home, returning with flowers and paper work.

Nuttall is forbidden from speaking to the media as part of his parole conditions.

Nuttall's son Andrew said the family was happy to have their father back home.

"Everything is good as you can understand — it's been a long time — so just enjoying some time with our dad," he said.

"He's good, he's going really well ... that's about all we can sort of say.

"[It's] day by day, that's all we can do.

"There's not much we can do with the parole conditions and everything else, so we just take it step by step — family's everything."

'Main thing that Gordon wants is to be around family'

Son-in-law, Harley Adams, said Nuttall would be staying at the house for "as long as he needs to".

Mr Adams said the family was not allowed to say what time the family picked Nuttall up.

"We don't know what we're doing for the day at the moment, so we've got no plans or anything," he said.

"We're just sitting there, just having a good chat and everything else and just talking and [he'll] probably have a sleep at some stage.

"The main thing that Gordon just wants is to be around family and catch up on some family time and everything else.

"I couldn't ask for a better grandfather to my children, or father-in-law, so we love him to bits.

"We're so happy to have him home and from now, it's time to move on and go on with life and enjoy [it] as we should be able to."

'Glad the book was thrown at Gordon Nuttall'

Cameron Dick, the state's current Health Minister and former attorney-general in the Bligh Labor government said "Gordon Nuttall got absolutely everything he deserved".

"Gordon Nuttall breached the trust of the people of Queensland - he used public office to line his own pockets," he said.

"As attorney-general I appealed against his sentence because I thought it was too lenient and I'm grateful that the Court of Appeal increased that sentence.

"He abused the trust of the people and as far as I'm concerned I'm glad the book was thrown at Gordon Nuttall."

However, John Mickel, a former Labor government colleague of Nuttall and now an academic at the Queensland University of Technology, said fair-minded people would say he had done his time.

"It's not as though the release is unconditional - he must meet the parole conditions," he said.

"He's done jail time, he's been fined by the Parliament. The court fees mean he's lost his house.

"In a personal sense there'd be trauma to the whole family ... so ... it's a tragedy - a tragedy for him.

"But also from a wider taxpayer perspective, they would say that people who enter public life have to have the highest standards, and if they fail to meet those high standards then there is a price - Mr Nuttall paid that price."

Nuttall a warning of the 'high standard' expected of MPs

Mr Mickel said it was his understanding that Nuttall had been given the heaviest penalty ever to a politician in Australia.

"Not only jail time, but fined by the Parliament for misleading the Parliament," he said.

"On top of that, there's the huge personal burden that he has carried and that any prisoner carries."

Mr Mickel said the any political damage for Labor "was done at the time".

"[Nuttall] should be now allowed as a private citizen to get on with his life," he said.

"What it says is if you're in public life, a high standard is expected of you as a Member of Parliament.

"Stray from that high standard as in this case in a criminal way and the full force of the law and the Parliament itself will be upon you."

Deputy Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said Nuttall had "gone through the legal system and he's served his time".

"Having served with him in the Parliament it's obviously been a very dark stain on Labor's history and something that will take the system a long time to recover from," he said.

"There's no doubt that he's paid a high price, but I do think that he's served his time and that he should be able to now get on with his life with his family."

Nuttall found guilty in 2009

The disgraced MP was jailed in 2009 for receiving more than $500,000 in secret payments from businessmen while he was a senior member of the Beattie Labor Government.

Nuttall served as the minister for industrial relations and then health minister between 2001 and 2005.

But he used his influence to award two multi-million-dollar government contracts, and was charged for corruptly receiving payments from businessmen.

His trial began in 2009.

Sorry, this video has expired The life and times of former Labor MP Gordon Nuttall ( Kerrin Binnie )

"If the truth counts for anything and if our justice system works, I'm very optimistic," Nuttall said at the time.

He was found guilty on July 15, 2009, and sentenced to seven years in jail.

A year later, he was given another five years in jail for perjury and corruption, which was increased to seven years after an appeal against the sentence in 2011.

He fronted the Queensland Parliament charged with contempt and pleaded his case.

"I struggle each and every day to understand how I can be found guilty of a secret commission," Nuttall told the House in May 2011.

He argued he had been punished enough and told the House his jail term was more severe than sentences handed to killers, armed robbers and even gangster Al Capone.

"I have never knowingly, or wrongfully, set out to do wrong," Nuttall told Parliament.

His appearance did not sway MPs and Nuttall was fined $82,000 and sent back to prison.

In 2012, Nuttall wrote to Parliament, saying he was unable to pay the fine and asked the Parliament to accept his apology as a suitable punishment.

However, Nuttall paid the final instalment of his parliamentary fine in 2013.