Councillors charged with integrity offences face automatic stand-down

Mayors and councillors charged with serious integrity offences would be automatically suspended with pay, under planned changes announced by Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe on Thursday.

The Palaszczuk government will seek new powers to suspend or dismiss mayors and councillors during next week’s Parliament sitting.

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe made the announcement on the Gold Coast on Thursday.Credit: Dave Hunt/AAP

Mr Hinchliffe said suspicion and distrust had impacted the entire sector, leading to a loss of public confidence and trust in councils.

“The reputation of local government has taken a hit in Queensland, with current and former mayors and councillors in some of our biggest councils facing dozens of criminal charges,” he said.

The changes include:

• An automatic suspension for any mayor or councillor charged with one of a series of serious integrity offences which attract a significant jail term
• An expansion of the powers of the Local Government Minister to dismiss or suspend a council, a councillor or mayor in the public interest

Mr Hinchliffe said expanding the power to dismiss or suspend a council, councillor or mayor in the public interest was necessary to put beyond doubt the capacity of the government to intervene when necessary.

The two new provisions will be introduced as amendments to the Belcarra bill and rushed through Parliament next week.

There will be no appeal rights for councillors who are automatically suspended after being charged with integrity and corruption offences, although they will receive full pay while stood down.

If the charges were dismissed or the person was found not guilty, the automatic suspension would end.

Mr Hinchliffe said the extra powers for the minister to sack a council or councillors in the public interest would still involve a requirement for natural justice and judicial review.

Last week, Mr Hinchliffe said he would ask the cabinet to consider strengthening his powers to dismiss councils when they had lost the trust of their community.

The move came after Ipswich mayor Andrew Antoniolli was charged with seven counts of fraud, making him the second mayor to be charged by the crime watchdog in less than 12 months.

Mr Hinchliffe gave Ipswich councillors 21 days to show cause as to why they should not be dismissed, and would move to appoint an administrator.

But Ipswich acting mayor Wayne Wendt said the council intended to show why it should not be moved into the hands of administrators.

Mr Hinchliffe said he would consider whether he would use the new powers on the Ipswich City Council when they became available.

He said he was yet to receive a response from Ipswich councillors following the show cause notice.

Announcing the new powers at a Local Government Association of Queensland event on the Gold Coast, Mr Hinchliffe said if people were tempted to think it was “just a few bad eggs, that that’s where it ends”, they would be wrong.

“[Crime and Corruption Commission boss] Alan Macsporran said there’s likely to be more charges in more councils,” he said.

But Mr Hinchliffe said he did not think the problem was widespread, but it saddened him the reputation of councils had taken a hit.

“Suspicion and disregard has impacted the entire sector,” he said.

LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said the association was “largely satisfied” with the range of offences which would be included in the automatic suspension provision, but was unhappy with one or two.

“They go to matters such as whether people have kept their register of interest up to date,” he said.

“If someone knowingly and very willingly had concealed a major interest and had never attempted to, and indeed, had thwarted

"...That’s a very different matter for someone who’s missed a deadline by a week or missed out one small share portfolio of $1000.”

LNP Local Government spokeswoman Ann Leahy said the opposition was supportive of cracking down on corruption, but the Premier needed to clean up her own party first.

"We will ask for a full briefing on the amendments, prior to their introduction next week," she said.

Ms Leahy criticised Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for not acting sooner on allegations relating to Ipswich, despite concerns being raised by Labor backbencher Jo-Ann Miller.