Govt walks away from ‘dodgy’ council election candidate spending proposal

The state government has walked away from a proposal it quietly floated in relation to council elections that its critics were “dodgy” and unfair as it gave a huge advantage to unions over mayoral candidates.

The state government has walked away from its proposal that would have allowed unions to spend millions more than mayoral candidates in Brisbane’s council elections following criticism it was “dodgy” and unfair.

Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Steven Miles on Thursday insisted it had been a draft proposal for consultation but said the government would take on the feedback.

“It’s unlikely that the final policy that the government adopts will be exactly as the discussion paper was put out there,” he said.

“If it were then you would question whether we had truly consulted.”

The government had quietly floated the new rules which included limiting the amount of money that local government election candidates could spend in their campaigns.

Under the proposed changes, Brisbane mayoral candidates would only be able to spend a maximum of $250,000, while Gold Coast mayoral candidates could spend up to about $222,000.

But registered third parties such as unions would have been able to spend the combined cap of every mayoral race in the state in one local government area equating to about $3.8 million each.

This proposal meant unions could choose to spend millions in a single local government area like Brisbane which is the only council race in Queensland that involves political parties.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. Picture Lachie Millard

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner had slammed the discussion paper as a “30-page plan to rig the next Brisbane council election”, while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli had called on Mr Miles to rule out what he described as an “assault on democracy”.

Mr Miles on Thursday said he had seen the concerns raised by the Lord Mayor.

“I’ve spoken to him about it a couple of times since then,” he said.

“We will take on board the feedback from local government when we determine where those caps will be set.”

But the Deputy Premier dismissed accusations the government was trying to rig council elections, saying that wasn’t the intention.

“This was a proposal for consultation, we are currently consulting, we will determine a final government policy after that consultation has concluded,” he said.

Mr Miles said everyone agreed broadly that electoral expenditure at a local government level should be capped for reasons outlined by the state’s corruption watchdog.

“We will implement those recommendations but we will do so in a way that is suitable,” he said.

Consultation on the discussion paper will close on May 27.