Brisbane City Council

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City of Brisbane
Queensland
SEQ-Councils-Brisbane.png
Map of Brisbane City in South East Queensland
Population: 1,027,847 (2008) (1st)1
• Density: 379.8/km² (983.7/sq mi)
Established: 1924
Area: 1367 km² (527.8 sq mi)
Mayor: Lord Mayor Campbell Newman
Council Seat: Brisbane CBD (City Hall)
Region: South East Queensland
State District: Algester, Ashgrove, Aspley, Brisbane Central, Bulimba, Chatsworth, Clayfield, Everton, Ferny Grove, Greenslopes, Inala, Indooroopilly, Lytton, Mansfield, Moggill, Mount Coot-tha, Mount Ommaney, Nudgee, Sandgate, South Brisbane, Stafford, Stretton, Sunnybank, Yeerongpilly
Federal Division: Brisbane, Bonner, Griffith, Lilley, Moreton, Oxley, Petrie, Ryan
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Website: http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/
LGAs around City of Brisbane:
Somerset Moreton Bay Moreton Bay
Somerset City of Brisbane Moreton Bay
Ipswich Logan Redland
Brisbane City

Brisbane City Council is the governing council for Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland, Australia. Unlike councils in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, where the local councils are generally responsible only for the relatively small Central Business Districts of those cities, Brisbane City Council administers the larger part of the Brisbane metropolitan area and has a larger population than any other Local Government Area in Australia. The population of the Brisbane City Council is roughly equivalent to the populations of Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory combined. The Council administers a budget of over AUD$3 billion.[1]

The Council is the combination of the local cities, towns and shires that merged together in 1924 (see history section). The main offices and Central Library for the Council are at 266 George Street also known as Brisbane Square, but they Used to be at 69 Ann Street, Previously Known as the Brisbane Administration Centre and Now Known as Northbank Plaza. The Brisbane City Hall houses the Council Chamber, the offices of the Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor, meeting and reception rooms and the Museum of Brisbane.

Contents

[edit] History

Brisbane City Council was formed by the Queensland State Government in 1925 by amalgamating twenty smaller councils. This amalgamation makes Brisbane City Council a fundamentally different organisation from City Councils in the other capital cities. These councils were:

The City Council also took over the responsibilities for several quasi-autonomous government authorities, for example the Brisbane Tramways Trust.

[edit] Structure

Brisbane City Council has its power divided between a powerful executive Lord Mayor, a parliamentary-style council of twenty-six councillors representing single-member wards of approximately 23,000 voters, and a Civic Cabinet comprising the Lord Mayor and the chairpersons of the seven standing committees drawn from the membership of Council. The Lord Mayor is the person elected by the largest single electorate in Australia. The seven standing committees of Council are:

  • Community Services Committee
  • Environment and Sustainability Committee
  • Finance Committee
  • Public Transport Committee
  • Roads, TransApex and Traffic Committee
  • Urban Planning and Economic Development Committee
  • Water and City Businesses Committee

The council also owns three business units which are city-owned enterprises managed on commercial lines:


Following Local Government elections on March 15, 2008, 10 councillors are members of the Australian Labor Party while 16 councillors and the Lord Mayor are from the Liberal Party. The current Lord Mayor of Brisbane is former civil engineer Campbell Newman who belongs to the Liberal Party and who is only the second Liberal Lord Mayor of Brisbane. The current Deputy Lord Mayor is Graham Quirk, who belongs to the Liberal Party. The day-to-day management of Council's operations is the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer who is currently Jude Munro.

Elections are held every four years with ballots for the Lord Mayoralty and the individual councillors being held simultaneously. Voting is compulsory for all eligible electors. The election in March 2004 resulted in the unusual situation of a Liberal Lord Mayor co-existing with a Labor majority on Council, resulting in remarkably few conflicts over civic budgets and Council policy. The most recent election in March 2008 saw a swing of 5.5% to the Liberal Party on the councillor votes, resulting in a Liberal majority on Council with a Liberal Lord Mayor (Lord Mayor Campbell Newman won re-election with 60% of the primary vote).

The Brisbane City Council and is incorporated under the City of Brisbane Act 1924, while other local governments in Queensland are bound by the Local Government Act 1993.

Council meetings are held at Brisbane City Hall every Tuesday at 2pm except during recess and holiday periods. Meetings are generally open to the public.

Brisbane City Council aims to be carbon neutral by 2026 via the reduction of emissions and carbon offsetting.[citation needed]

[edit] Heraldry

Brisbane Coat of Arms

The motto of Brisbane City Council is Meliora sequimur, Latin for We aim for better things. Its corporate slogan is Dedicated to a better Brisbane. The city's colours are blue and gold. Its corporate logo was introduced in 1982 in preparation for the Commonwealth Games hosted in Brisbane that year. It features a stylised version of Brisbane's City Hall which opened in 1930. The city's floral emblem is the (exotic) poinsettia and its faunal emblem is the Graceful Tree Frog.

[edit] Wards

As of 15 March 2008, the twenty-six wards, their councillors and their party affiliations are:

Ward Party Councillor
  Bracken Ridge LNP Amanda Cooper
  Central Labor David Hinchliffe
  Chandler LNP Adrian Schrinner
  Deagon Labor Victoria Newton
  Doboy Labor John Campbell
  Enoggera LNP Andrew Wines
  Hamilton LNP David McLachlan
  Holland Park LNP Ian McKenzie
  Jamboree LNP Matthew Bourke
  Karawatha Labor Gail MacPherson
  Macgregor LNP Graham Quirk
  Marchant LNP Fiona King
  McDowall LNP Norm Wyndham
  Moorooka Labor Steve Griffiths
  Morningside Labor Shayne Sutton
  Northgate Labor Kim Flesser
  Parkinson LNP Angela Owen-Taylor
  Pullenvale LNP Margaret de Wit
  Richlands Labor Milton Dick
  Tennyson LNP Nicole Johnston
  The Gabba Labor Helen Abrahams
  The Gap LNP Geraldine Knapp
  Toowong LNP Peter Matic
  Walter Taylor LNP Jane Prentice
  Wishart LNP Krista Adams
  Wynnum Manly Labor Peter Cumming

[edit] Sister cities

Brisbane has seven sister cities.[2] They are:

In 1995, Brisbane City Council officially severed all ties with its sister city, Nice, France, in protest against the Chirac government's decision to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean.[3] Brisbane does not have any sister city relationship with any North American, South American, African or European city.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ "Facts & Statistics". Our Brisbane. http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/brisbanelife/facts/statistics.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-02. 
  3. ^ Thomas, Nicholas (in English). Re-Orienting Australia-China Relations: 1972 to the Present. Australia: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. p. 75. ISBN 0754632458. http://books.google.com/books?id=I2Or9vD2LYQC&pg=PA75&dq=For+example,+the+BCC+officially+severed+all+ties+with+its+French+Sister-city,+Nice,+in+protest+against+the+Chirac+government%27s+decision+to+resume+nuclear&sig=b9eYCYByKUwv6gZHRCljAmed4uQ. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 
  4. ^ Sister Cities - Brisbane City Council

[edit] External links

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Local Government Areas in South East Queensland
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