The State Government has announced it is ready to deliver a promise to introduce expenditure caps for Local Government elections.
Fulfilling a 2020 election commitment, Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister, Steven Miles said a State-wide public consultation on the proposed expenditure cap scheme had reached its completion.
“We have incorporated the feedback from the 22 submissions and will progress the final scheme design as a Bill later this year,” Dr Miles said.
“The proposed caps for Brisbane City Council will be set at $55,000 per ward for councillor candidates and $1.3 million for mayoral candidates,” he said.
“The scheme will see expenditure caps applied to all electoral participants, including councillor and mayoral candidates, groups of candidates, political parties, and third parties participating in an election.”
Dr Miles said the capped expenditure period for Local Government elections would be limited to run for about seven months, aligning with the Electoral Act 1992 State legislation.
He said third parties’ expenditure caps would be 100 per cent of the mayoral cap in the relevant Local Government area without the ability to pool caps across Local Government areas.
“My Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning released a discussion paper to key stakeholders in April with a consultation period of six weeks,” Dr Miles said.
“Every Queensland Councillor and Mayor was encouraged to make a submission on the discussion paper and the feedback we received was broadly supportive of a local government electoral expenditure caps scheme.”
