Councillors barred from office for up to seven years if convicted

Queensland councillors will be banned from seeking re-election for up to seven years if convicted of serious integrity offences.

Under proposed changes being debated in the Queensland Parliament this week, councillors convicted of integrity offences would automatically lose their job and be disqualified from being a councillor for four years.

Councillors would be banned for seven years under the legislation if found guilty of a serious offence.Credit: Chris Hyde

For a serious integrity offence, councillors would be disqualified for seven years.

Councillors charged with serious integrity offences, such as bribery or treason, will be automatically suspended while their charges are being dealt with by the courts.

While suspended, councillors will be entitled to their base pay, but no additional allowances.

The local government minister will also get more power to dissolve councils and dismiss councillors in the "public interest".

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the public interest could include issues with complying with the law, ensuring accountability and transparency, exposing corruption, community confidence in local government and managing private interests which conflict with official duties.

"The community expects and deserves to have confidence in the integrity of their elected officials," he said.

Property developers will be banned from donating to local or state candidates or parties.

The property developer donation ban will be backdated to when they were first introduced (October 12) meaning people would have to pay back any illegal donations received during last year's state election.

"This government believes property developers should not be able to buy political influence, simply because they can," Mr Hinchliffe said.

"The government's decision to extend the ban to the state level also acknowledges the state's significant role in the state's planning framework."

A new $14.13 million Office of the Indpendent Assessor will be established to investigate and deal with allegations against councillors, meaning council CEOs will no longer be in the position of undertaking preliminary assessments of complaints.

Mr Hinchliffe said the measures would be "continually reviewed" to ensure it met community expectations for elected representations.

The powers to dismiss or suspend councillors or councils, and the automatic suspension provisions will be reviewed within two years.

Mr Hinchliffe said the proposed changes were to deal with a "minority" in councils.

"But those standards must be high, they must be maintained," he said.

"These bills are not designed to catch those who make genuine mistakes, but rather to deal with those few councillors now living up to their community's expectations."

Opposition Local Government spokeswoman Ann Leahy said the bills being debated moved in the right direction, but there was still room for improvement.

The LNP planned to move amendments to ban unions from donating to state government candidates or parties.

Debate on the Local Government (Councillor Complaints) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill and the Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 1 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill was expected to continue on Wednesday.

The beefed up powers come amid a string of charges being laid against Queensland mayors and staff, with Mr Hinchliffe asking Ipswich councillors to show cause as to why they should not be sacked.

Overnight, Labor member for Bundamba accused her own colleagues of "reckless decision-making" over corruption allegations, questioning whether there was official misconduct.

However, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said she completely and utterly refuted the allegations.