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Queensland Finance Minister Ros Bates has handed a recent state port board appointee with links to her governing Liberal National Party a lucrative new position after his property conflicts became too difficult to manage.

Justin Parer, a Cairns-based ship builder, was made a director of Ports North in February but will now take the state-owned energy company Stanwell chair role from Paul Binsted – who had one year still left on his term.

Bates told parliament in a private members’ statement that a conflict management plan was active across Parer’s term after he disclosed an interest in land adjacent to the port facilities while being considered for the role.

But this had become “more difficult to maintain” and meant Parer would leave the board, a move Bates said the government

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