Brisbane mayor accuses Labor of trying to ‘rig’ election

Adrian Schrinner has attacked proposed new spending caps that would allow unions to spend 15 times more than mayoral candidates.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Brisbane’s lord mayor has accused the Palaszczuk government of hatching a plan to “rig the next council election” with ­proposed new spending caps that would allow unions to spend 15 times more than mayoral candidates.

In a new discussion paper, the state Labor government has proposed campaign spending caps for all local government elections in the state ranging between $30,000 and $250,000.

Registered third parties, such as unions, would each be allowed to spend the combined cap of every mayoral race in the state in a single council area, a total of $3.8m.

Brisbane’s Liberal lord mayor Adrian Schrinner, whose campaign spending would be capped at $250,000, described the potential changes as a financial gerrymander that was “quite clearly designed to rig the next council election”.

“We know this plan is designed to influence the next election and this is not good for our democratic system,” he said.

“Other registered third parties are not particularly interested in local government; unions are. We have at least 12 unions active in the Brisbane City Council workforce, so do the maths.”

Mr Schrinner said there had been no consultation before the discussion paper was released.

“While focus is on a federal election, they’ve tried to quietly release a 30-page plan to rig the next Brisbane council election through a farcical financial gerrymander,” he said.

“There are different rules for all different councils, there are different rules for the state government, and the only lens you can look through this is a political lens.”

Acting Premier Steven Miles said the state government was implementing recommendations of the Crime and Corruption Commission to introduce caps for local government elections.

He stressed there had been no decision made on electoral expenditures caps, other than to begin consultation.

“The candidate and party caps were proposed based upon analysis of actual expenditure by candidates and parties at local government elections,” Mr Miles said.

“They are above what the vast majority of candidates spend ­historically.

“The discussion paper is for consultation purposes. Feedback, including from the LNP and lord mayor, will be considered in determining what caps the government ultimately proposes.”

The Local Government Association of Queensland supports spending caps but says they must be fair. “Councils across Queensland have called for any new campaign spending cap regime to be accompanied by new laws to prevent the potential distorting influence of third parties with aligned interests,” LGAQ chief Alison Smith said. “We urge the government to ensure any proposed changes reflect this intent.”

Spending caps were introduced for state government campaigns in 2020. Under the rules, political parties are limited to a total election spend of $92,000 a seat, meaning no more than $8.5m can be spent on an entire campaign. Third-party organisations, including unions, are able to spend $87,000 in a single electorate, and no more than $1m statewide.