She lost her seat at the election that December, and was not long out of Parliament when she was charged with numerous counts of misappropriation of public funds concerning her usage of her official credit card.
Raised as a Roman Catholic, Harvey eventually became a Pentecostal and joined Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane's southern suburbs.
On election day, Harvey achieved a large swing, easily defeating incumbent Liberal and former minister Bill Hewitt and taking Greenslopes for the National Party for the first time in its history.
[4][5] In late 1987, amid mounting criticism from within the party, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland for nearly twenty years, resigned, and was succeeded by the more moderate Mike Ahern.
She also came under attack for appointing her daughter and sister-in-law to her paid staff, as well as a woman previously convicted on fraud charges, and using government funds to pay her hairdressing bills, leading the opposition to dub her "Minister for Goldilocks".
The issue had been essentially ignored under Bjelke-Petersen, but under the more moderate Ahern, Harvey was tasked with taking steps to begin to address the disease.
To this extent, she oversaw the legalisation of condom vending machines and needle exchanges, and instituted a programme of AIDS education in schools.
This was not taken well by many of her National Party colleagues, and after an internal outcry, Ahern retracted his prior decision and sacked her from Cabinet altogether before she could be sworn in.
[19] The charges concerned her use of her official credit card for A$42,364 in personal expenses, some of which it was alleged included taking her husband on a birthday trip to the Adelaide Grand Prix.
[20][21] She was subsequently convicted of misappropriation on 13 of the original 124 charges, concerning a total of $7,900, and sentenced to twelve months in prison in November 1990.