State Parliament has legislated more local government reforms including reduction of mayoral powers to direct council staff and requiring council budgets to be prepared by a whole Council, not just the mayor.
Unsatisfactory mayoral conduct since 2016 council elections
South east Queensland mayors have been a pretty disappointing bunch in recent years. Of the 12 mayors elected in March 2016, three have left office in disgrace and three others have been found to have engaged in misconduct.
Paul Pisasale (Ipswich) was charged with a range of offences including fraud, corruption and perjury. He has been found guilty of extortion, with other matters still to be tried.
Ipswich’s replacement mayor, Andrew Antoniolli, was sacked (with the rest of Ipswich council) after being charged with 13 fraud-related offences for which he was subsequently convicted.
Luke Smith (Logan City Council) has been charged with a number of serious offences and together with several other councillors was sacked by the Local Government Minister, in April 2019.
Chris Loft (Fraser Coast Council) was sacked for serial misconduct by the Minister for Local Government, in February 2018.
Three other south east Queensland mayors were found to have engaged in misconduct during 2018.
- Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate was found to have engaged in misconduct over a social media post about a fellow Councillor
- Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio was found to have engaged in misconduct in his dealings with the Melbourne-to-Brisbane Inland Railway project resulting in a $15,000 fine
- Redland City Mayor Karen Williams was found to have engaged in misconduct by failing to declare a conflict of interest at a council meeting
Labor’s local government reform agenda
Since the CCC’s report on Operation Belcarra, in October 2017, the Government has been pursuing what it describes as a rolling program of local government reform.
The first tranche of legislative changes banned political donations from property developers and imposed more stringent requirements for declaring and dealing with conflicts of interests.
Last week, more legislative changes were passed to strengthen the transparency, accountability and integrity measures that apply to the local government in Queensland, including:
- mandatory So you want to be a councillor? candidate training
- transparent candidate bank accounts
- changes to how a budget is presented to councillors
- expanded councillor rights to access information
- changes to mayoral powers
An overview of the various changes included in the second tranche of local government government reforms is set out in an information paper published by the Department of Local Government.
Mayoral powers were increased by the Newman Government
Mayoral powers in Queensland were expanded by the Newman LNP Government during its brief tenure (2012-2015). This was despite advice to the contrary in a report from a government controlled parliamentary committee.
The Newman Government’s changes to the Local Government Act meant that a mayor could direct any senior council staff, not just the council’s Chief Executive officer (CEO). There was no requirement for a mayor’s directions to be in writing. The mayor was given special responsibility of preparing a budget for consideration by the council.
Labor’s changes to mayoral powers
From 18 November 2019 these Newman Government changes will be reversed, such that:
- The mayor no longer has the additional responsibility of preparing a budget to present to the council.
- The mayor can no longer direct senior executive employees of council.
- The mayor can direct the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) only, and only in accordance with a documented council resolution.
- Responsibility for staff recruitment by the mayor and councillors is limited to the position of the CEO. All other staff matters are to be dealt with by the CEO.
The Labor Government’s intention to trim mayor powers and other proposed changes to local government regulation were flagged in an information paper circulated by the Local Government Department in March 2019. These proposed reforms were discussed by State MPs Don Brown and Kim Richards at a public forum organised by Redlands2030.
The Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 (Bill) was introduced to Parliament on 1 May 2019 and referred to a parliamentary committee for review.
During the committee review phase, submissions from the Redlands supporting the proposed reduction in mayoral powers were made by Cr Wendy Boglary, Cr Paul Bishop and by Redlands2030.
Changes to mayoral powers debated in parliament
When parliament finally got to debate the legislation in mid-October, the reduction of mayoral powers was criticised by LNP shadow minister for local government Ann Leahy (MP for Warrego) who said:
“These powers were introduced by the previous LNP government and were a progressive reform that helped local governments do their jobs, fulfil their responsibilities and meet the day-to-day challenges. The LNP will not be supporting the removal of the ability of the mayor to give a direction to senior executive employees. The LNP will not be supporting the removal of the ability of the mayor and the deputy mayor, or the councillor who is the committee chair, to participate in decision-making to appoint senior executive employees. There is no solid reason outlined by the government that these powers of mayors and councillors should be reduced.” (Hansard Queensland 15 October 2019 page 3156)
Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe replied that the proposed changes were required to fix problems identified in the organisation culture of local government which were identified during the CCC’s Operation Windage investigation.
In his speech to parliament on 16 October 2019 Mr Hinchliffe said: “The member for Warrego asserted that the removal of mayoral powers was not recommended by any integrity body. That is incorrect. The CCC’s Operation Windage investigation identified significant cultural issues and governance failures on how local governments operate”. Mr Hinchliffe went on to say: “Removing those powers offers a clear separation between elected councillors who decide the policies, priorities and strategic direction of the council and employees who are responsible for implementing the decisions of the councillors.” (Hansard Queensland 16 October 2019 page 3260)
Proposed local council reforms that were not legislated
At the last minute, some proposed reforms were withdrawn from the legislation which was debated and passed in parliament last week. These included the introduction of compulsory preferential voting and changes to further improve the management of conflicts of interest. Labor’s backflip on plans to implement compulsory preferential voting followed a strong campaign from incumbent councillors and their lobby group, the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ).
In explaining his last minute amendments to delete amendments relating to improved measures for dealing with conflicts of interest, Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe referred to the CCC’s report on 6 September which dealt with Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s purchase of a house near the route of Cross River Rail. The Minister said:
“I turn now to key provisions of the bill about councillors’ conflicts of interest. On 6 September this year the CCC handed down six new recommendations in relation to managing conflicts of interest and registers of interest for cabinet ministers and members of the Queensland parliament. The CCC recommendations specifically mentioned aligning the obligations of elected officials in state government with the obligations of elected officials in local government, consistent with the recommendations for local government made by the CCC arising out of Operation Belcarra. As a result of these new recommendations, the conflict of interest and register of interest provisions in the bill will be removed during amendments in consideration in detail. These provisions will be amended to align with the new legislative regime to regulate the ROIs and COIs of cabinet ministers and will form part of future legislation. Alignment between councillors and state ministers is a key policy outcome of these reforms.” (Hansard Queensland 15 October 2019 page 3151).
When will the Government finish the job?
After this week, State Parliament has only three more sitting days in 2019; from 26-28 November. Even if the Government drafts new rules for managing conflicts of interest by this date, the normal process for having legislation reviewed by a parliamentary committee means that further reform is unlikely to be enacted for several months.
The next local Council elections are due to be held on 28 March 2020.
Redlands2030 – 21 October 2019
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4 Comments
The way things are going, we won’t need councillors nor mayors at all. As it is, the council officers make all the recommendations with a yay or nay from elected representatives. Councils now-a-days are companies merely run by directors. The LGAQ CEOs are all powerful. It is only a matter of time IMO before councillors and mayors become obsolete unless ratepayers and citizens of Queensland do something about it.
Of course, there needs to be a more stringent regulatory process which governs how Mayors and councillors operate, than has existed in the recent past. Previous freedoms bestowed upon these people was no doubt derived from a nonsensical notion of immaculate conception, resulting in a local government system which spiralled towards a Boss Hog type scenario, where personal whims of a senior official reigned supreme, and born from a totally naive LNP government, something we usually expect from the ALP.
The article begins with the headline, unsatisfactory mayoral conduct. What about the unintuitive behaviour of a constituency which steadfastly aligns with irrelevant historical concept, by persistently electing to remain with the same ethos, just because that’s what they or their families have always done?
It’s long past a time when we all should be thinking about the ramifications of our decisions!
In his one term as Premier, Campbell Newman made many changes. He went so far as to dispense with the need for pollution barriers that consist of leaving an adequate green space between roadway& development to protect health of residential communities particularly with increasing traffic congestion, with mainly diesel powered fuel known to be carcinogenic. Followed vehicle along Redland Bay Rd Tuesday this week belching black smoke from exhaust pipe and hear similar stories with family member speaking of a vehicle leaving a long plume of black smoke behind. See heavy vehicles in Redlands, ute being favourite, + pieces broken off roadside between Elmhurst & Finucane/Old Cleveland Rd 4-way intersection most days as the road, Premier admits, Finucane/Willard Rds where several citizens have died in recent years, is ‘dangerous’. Locals want turnaround Campbell Newman installed to prevent vehicles turning into flowing traffic, removed…& install lights at Finucane/ Elmhurst St. Then on top of this unsafe road, seems Q’ld govt heavyweights anxious to see 3,600 apartments in bldgs burying Toondah Harbour & surrounds in concrete (secret deal w pollies Mayor behind closed doors). Do any politicians ever discuss how to manage traffic generated by thousands of additional motor vehicles where we have poor public transport (rail and road) & most of us are dependent on personal transport to reach work destinations?
As for elections. Incumbents have advantages in that developers will always, for obvious reasons, give generously, as in Redlands last election, aged care homes gave at least $5,000 was it? JJRichards Waste Co $10,000, politicians past and present, don’t want change, various companies, etc. Only incumbents can promote themselves in that they have local billboards to display huge portraits of themselves, only incumbent was seen on 4-wheeled contraptions with portraits on raised platform in Capalaba last election, with all other candidate’s signs vanishing overnight so successful was the sign removal campaign residents in Capalaba, Birkdale and Wellington Point had no idea who was running against the mayor. Sister in retirement complex in Birkdale asked me to describe who was running against Mayor Williams. Prof Paul Williams of Griffith University who writes for Courier Mail on political issues, commented: “Redlands was the dirtiest and grubbiest I’ve ever seen because of sign stealing”. In traffic we see today, these huge portraits are a distraction and a moment of distraction can and do lead to people dying on our roads. What I’m hearing today is that Karen Williams will retain her position as Mayor of Redland City, hopefully with reduced powers.
We need to see the mayoral powers reduced because it has become obvious that these extra powers, brought in during the one-term, ill-equipped LNP Premier, Campbell Newman, have been flaunted by a number of Mayors. Twice I have voted in council elections for Mayor Williams but I have realised since 2016 that she is closely aligned to developers. That is not good for our wildlife, including koalas and endangered shorebirds, and it is definitely not good for our lifestyles in the Redlands. The Walker Proposal for Toondah Harbour is bordering on a disgrace but she still fully supports it. As for the LNP it appears they will not be voting to reduce Mayoral powers in the face of misuse of power in a number of councils, with conflicts of interest, dismissals and even jail terms. Consequently the LNP will not be getting my vote in October 2020.