Qld council pay rises: Mayors, councillors get hikes up to 4pc

Queensland local councillors have received pay rises of 3 to 4 per cent, sending the salary of one mayor above $270,000.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate

The state’s mayors and councillors have been granted pay bumps worth thousands of dollars, with Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s salary to now hit more than $270,000 per year.

The Local Government Remuneration Commission has made its annual ruling on councillor and mayoral pay, with local council representatives to be given pay rises of between 3 and 4 per cent.

The ruling, which excludes Brisbane City Council, will see Cr Tate’s annual salary increase from $263,227 to $271,124, while his fellow Gold Coast councillors will now earn $161,799 per year.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson, Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery, and Logan Mayor Darren Power will have their annual salary jump from $237,753 to $244,886.

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding and Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill will now be paid $218,647 – up from their existing pay of $212,279 for the 2022-23 financial year.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson

The mayors of Cairns, Mackay, Redlands and Toowoomba have also been granted a pay rise of 3 per cent, with their salaries to reach $192,410 per year.

Councillors in Logan, Moreton Bay, and the Sunshine Coast will now be paid $148,681 per year, while councillors in Ipswich and Townsville will have their pay bumped up to $131,187.

The independent Local Government Remuneration Commission made a pay increase ruling for every council in the state, except Brisbane, with the increases to come into effect from July 1.

The next local government elections are due in March next year, which means mayors and councillors will need to win re-election in order to get the entirety of the new pay packet.

The 3 to 4 per cent pay rises that each of the councillors and mayors will get puts them well behind Brisbane’s most recent inflation rate of 7.7 per cent for the 2022 calendar year.

The 3 per cent pay rises were granted to mayors and councillors in the 14 biggest local governments outside of Brisbane, while the 4 per cent pay rises were awarded to the remaining smaller councils.

Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade

In coming to its decision, the commission took into account a range of factors, such as increases in CPI, increases in the wage price index, as well as pay increases given to state MPs.

They also took into account the pay increases that tribunals in other states had granted their councillors, and the “impact of inflation and the relative volatility of CPI” in the past 12 months.

Ultimate history of pay rises for Qld councillors and mayors

The impacts of global supply chain shortages and the Covid-19 pandemic were also considered by the commission.

Mayors and councillors can opt to be paid less than what the tribunal has ruled, but it requires a motion to pass council.

The mayors of Queensland’s smallest councils will now be paid $114,801 following the commission’s decision, while councillors in the same local government areas will be paid $57,400 per year.