2024 Local Government Elections

The next Local Government Elections will be held on Saturday 16th March 2024.

Normally, local council elections are held on the last Saturday in March but in 2024 Easter will be in late March.

So State Cabinet has approved bringing forward the election day by two weeks to 16th March.

The Government’s decision to have the elections on 16th March 2024 was announced by Local Government Minister Steven Miles.

Spending caps for Local Government Elections

Laws imposing electoral expenditure caps for local council elections were passed by State Parliament this week.

For Redland City Council election candidates the following spending caps will apply.

Candidates for divisional councillor positions will be limited to expenditure of $15,000.

The spending limit for Redland City mayoral candidates will be one dollar multiplied by the number of enrolled voters in the Redlands, as at 1 July 2023.

At its February monthly meeting, an officer’s report showed that at 31 January 2023 there were 117,137 people enrolled to vote in the Redlands.

The spending caps will apply for the seven months prior to the election date.

Caretaker Period for local government elections

A formal notice of election is normally issued five weeks before the election date by the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ).

If past practice is followed then the notice of election for the 2024 local council elections will be issued on Saturday 10th February 2024.

The period between issue of the notice of election and the election date is known as the caretaker period.

During the caretaker period local councils are prohibited from making major policy and planning decisions.

They must not publish or distribute election material which includes fact sheets or newsletters that raise the profile of a councillor.

A fact sheet Caretaker period for local government elections has been published by the State Government.

Redlands2030 – 22 April 2023