Dr Davis successfully argued to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal that he had been discriminated against when he missed out on a job in the months after he left State Parliament after falling out with then-premier Campbell Newman and his LNP government.

Dr Davis was awarded $1,450,771.69, which Metro North Hospital and Health Service must pay within 30 days.

The former LNP member for Stafford told Brisbane Times he was relieved with the decision.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

“I think it’s vitally important that people can be elected to Parliament and then that they can represent their community.

“It’s difficult enough to get people to stand for election and come from diverse backgrounds, so it’s very worrying that they can be got at after politics in the way that appears to be the case per the tribunal’s judgment.”

A Metro North HHS spokesman noted the claim dated back “a number of years”.

“We are carefully considering the QCAT decision and are seeking further legal advice,” he said.

“As an equal-opportunity employer, our selection processes and employment decisions are undertaken in a non-discriminatory way.”

In her decision, QCAT member Clare Endicott noted Dr Davis had been “publicly critical of the Liberal National Party government and in particular, of the Premier”.

“Public comments made by the Premier, Campbell Newman, laid the blame for the defeat of the Liberal National Party at the feet of Dr Davis,” she said.

“The unsuccessful candidate for the Liberal National Party, Bob Andersen, identified the damage done to the Party by the former member (Dr Davis) as a factor in the unsuccessful campaign.”

Following his May 23, 2014, resignation from Parliament, Dr Davis applied for a job with Metro North HHS as a staff specialist geriatric medicine senior medical officer.

There were two applicants for the job, of whom Dr Davis was the only qualified geriatrician and as such was, as Ms Endicott noted, “for all relevant purposes the sole applicant for the position”.

Ms Endicott noted there was an established recruitment procedure within Metro North HHS for such vacancies.

“This procedure was not followed in the application made by Dr Davis,” she said.

“A selection panel was not formally convened. The recruitment process to fill the position did not proceed to an interview. Dr Davis was informed verbally and by email by Dr [Charles] Denaro on 26 September 2014 that the position of Senior Medical Officer had been withdrawn.”

Dr Davis complained Metro North HHS had unlawfully discriminated against him, and did not employ him, for the “substantial reason that he held political beliefs or engaged in political activities”.

Although Metro North HHS denied consideration of Dr Davis’s political activity influenced the decision, Ms Endicott found otherwise.

“An inference of discrimination is open on the cumulative weight of the evidence, that a decision was made on 2 September 2014 not to employ Dr Davis because of Dr Davis’s attribute of political belief and activity,” she said.

“There was no innocent explanation given by [then-Metro North HHS chief executive Malcolm] Stamp or [board chairman] Dr [Paul] Alexander for the decision that could satisfactorily negate that inference.

“In fact, the evidence reveals that no reason was given for the decision by the chief executive officer at that time: not clinical streaming, not budgetary concerns, not a concern about his ‘fit’ for the role.

“It is reasonable for the tribunal to draw the inference that the reason for the decision was directly connected to who the sole applicant was and to his recent actions (less than four months previously and as recently as late July 2014) as a politician and a potential future political candidate.”

In an email tendered as evidence, to then-RBWH executive director Keshwar Baboolal and then-RBWH internal medicine services executive director Kate Mason on September 26, 2014, Dr Denaro wrote: “I appreciate that you both are trying to find a sensible solution to this problem. So I write to Chris and say that in light of Clinical Streams being established across Metro North – all vacant positions are being re-evaluated and therefore this position has bene (sic) withdrawn.

“I will have to also say that I am hoping I will be given the approval to readvertise in the new year? He will realise that it is BS.”

Dr Davis resigned from the LNP and Parliament after a public falling out with the Newman government over doctors' contracts and changes to electoral donation laws.

His resignation forced the Stafford byelection, which saw maxillofacial surgeon Anthony Lynham sweep to victory in the first sign of Labor’s resurgence in state politics under leader Annastacia Palaszczuk.

“As far as I'm concerned, I was very careful and responsible in what I was saying," Dr Davis said.

"It wasn't as if all of those things were announced before the (2012) election; that they were going to put doctors on draconian contracts, that they were going to change the situation with the CCC and that they were going to change the legal donation laws."