Ex-Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s new $134,000 a year job to sit on Queensland Investment Corporation

Former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been appointed to a $134,000 a year role on the board of a Queensland Government corporation.

The State’s Liberal National Party Government on Friday announced the defeated Federal Liberal leader would be appointed to the board of the Queensland Investment Corporation, along with former Queensland Labor MP Michael Choi.

Board members earn $133,974 a year to attend 20 meetings a year, QIC’s annual report said.

Mr Dutton’s new role as a QIC director will see him paid almost twice Australia’s median salary of $74,100.

State Treasurer David Janetzki and Finance Minister Ros Bates said Mr Dutton had the experience to make Queensland more self-reliant by oversees grants to defence, biomedical and biofuels projects.

“The Honourable Peter Dutton will bring his expansive government and defence industry experience, to provide strategic advice on accelerating development through the flagship Sovereign Industry Development Fund,” they said in a statement.

Mr Dutton’s appointment comes almost a year after he led the Liberal Party to its worst-ever defeat, which also saw him lose his Brisbane seat of Dickson after almost 24 years as the local member.

The former Queensland police detective had gone to the election with a plan to build seven nuclear reactors but he will now sit on the board of the QIC which invests in renewable energy.

He had previously served as a cabinet minister in the health, immigration and border protection, home affairs and defence portfolios under Liberal prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

The conservative warrior within Queensland’s LNP will serve on the QIC board alongside the likes of former Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams, who was appointed under Labor.

Mr Choi, a former minister in Peter Beattie’s Labor government, was a social conservative in the caucus who spoke out against abortion and recognising same-sex relationships.