Brisbane Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner has demanded the State Government scrap spending caps proposed for council elections and engage in genuine consultation with local government on electoral reform.
At a press conference called this morning, the Lord Mayor said he supported a system of fair spending caps but said the current proposal – which would allow a union to spend more than four times the amount of a registered political party at the next Brisbane City Council election in 2024 – was “outrageous”.
He said the proposed electoral cap scheme would also allow Barcoo mayoral candidates to spend up to $143 per voter, while in Brisbane the figure was just 30 cents.
Lord Mayor Schrinner called on Queensland Local Government Minister, Steven Miles – who is yet to publicly support the proposed local government expenditure caps – to scrap the current discussion paper and develop a new model.
“If the Labor Government was serious about electoral reform, it would have consulted with councils and come up with something fair,” he said.
“Instead, it’s produced a 30-page plan to rig the next Brisbane local government election through a farcical financial gerrymander.
“This is yet another integrity scandal for Labor. What makes this dodgy affront to democracy even worse is that they’re trying to slip it through while people are focussed on the Federal election.”
