Jump to content

2020 Queensland local elections

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2020 Queensland local elections

← 2016 28 March 2020 2024 →
  First party Second party Third party
 
IND
Leader N/A N/A N/A
Party Independents Liberal National Labor
Last election 19 5
Seats before 18 5
Seats won 424 19 5
Seat change Increase 1 Steady
Popular vote 954,307 279,793 200,428
Percentage 41.72% 12.23% 8.76%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
NQSA
AJP
Leader No leader Peter Raffles No leader
Party Greens NQ State Alliance Animal Justice
Last election 1 Did not exist 0
Seats before 1 0 0
Seats won 1 0 0
Seat change Steady Steady Steady
Popular vote 141,006 12,469 10,665

  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
LDP
ABF
WHIG
Leader No leader No leader Mike Jessop
Party Liberal Democrats Better Families Whig
Last election 0 0 0
Seats before 0 1 0
Seats won 0 0 0
Seat change Steady Decrease 1 Steady
Popular vote 7,433 2,395 1,825

Results by LGA

The 2020 Queensland local elections were held on 28 March 2020 to elect the mayors and councils of the 77 local government areas in Queensland, Australia.[1]

The elections were held in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and on the same day as the state by-elections in Bundamba and Currumbin.[2]

Electoral systems

[edit]

Mayors and single-member wards

[edit]

All 77 councils use optional preferential voting (OPV) for mayoral elections. Under OPV, voters are only required to vote for one candidates, although they can choose to preference other candidates.[3]

In the 22 councils that use single-member wards (including Brisbane and the Gold Coast) OPV is also used.[4]

Multi-member wards

[edit]

In July 2019, it was announced that the 10 single-member wards on Ipswich City Council would be replaced by four two-member wards, reducing the total amount of councillors to eight.[5]

No form of preferential voting is in place, with plurality block voting (also referred to as first-past-the-post by the Electoral Commission) is instead used, where voters are only required to mark the same amount of candidates as there are positions to be elected − in the case of Ipswich, two candidates.[6][7]

Undivided councils

[edit]

54 councils are undivided, meaning they do not use any forms of wards and all councillors are elected in a single area representing the entire LGA.[8]

Plurality block voting is used for these councils.[6]

Party changes before elections

[edit]

A number of councillors joined or left parties before the 2024 elections.

Council Ward Councillor Former party New party Date
Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow   Independent Labor   Independent 6 November 2017
Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli   Independent Labor   Independent 3 May 2018
Ipswich Division 4 Kylie Stoneman   Independent Labor   Independent 1 August 2018
Redland Division 9 Paul Gleeson   Independent   Better Families 28 March 2019
Townsville Division 2 Paul Jacob   Team Jenny Hill   Independent 2019[9]
Maranoa Mayor Tyson Golder   Independent   Unity Maranoa 22 February 2020
Gympie Division 2 Glen Hartwig   Katter's Australian   Independent 3 March 2020
Brisbane Pullenvale Kate Richards   Liberal National   Independent 2020

Political parties

[edit]

Queensland councils are largely non-partisan. Most wards are not contested by political parties and are rarely successful when they do. The sole exception to this is Brisbane, which is contested by the Liberal National Party, Labor and the Greens. The Greens also contested several seats in other LGAs, though none of their candidates outside Brisbane were elected.[10] There are also a number of councillors and candidates who are members of political parties but ran as independents.

Minor parties including the Animal Justice Party and the Liberal Democrats also contested the elections.[11] There are also a number of local parties that operate exclusively within a single LGA.

The North Queensland State Alliance, which advocates for the creation of the State of North Queensland, ran two separate party tickets − Cairns N.Q.S.A. Team (5,775 votes) and TSV Team NQ State Alliance (6,694 votes). No candidates from either ticket were elected.[12]

Results

[edit]
Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
  Independents 954,307 41.72 424
  Liberal National 279,793 12.23 19 Steady
  Greg Williamson Alliance 272,691 11.92 6
  Labor 200,428 8.76 5 Steady
  Independent Liberal National 169,364 7.40 15 Decrease 5
  Greens 141,006 6.16 1 Steady
  Independent Labor 79,606 3.48 7 Decrease 2
  Team Jenny Hill 44,715 1.95 9
  Christensen & Keioskie 43,781 1.91 0 Steady
  Cairns Unity 26,395 1.15 6 Steady
  Future Noosa 25,280 1.11 1
  Our Team 4 Your Shire 24,973 1.09 3
  Progress Mount Isa 20,155 0.88 5 Increase 5
  Your Voice Of Experience 18,917 0.83 2
  Unity Maranoa 16,546 0.72 4
  Mount Isa Community Team 15,571 0.68 0 Steady
  North Queensland State Alliance 12,469 0.55 0 Steady
  It's Time for Townsville 12,375 0.54 0
  Animal Justice 10,665 0.47 0 Steady
  Our Voice 10,587 0.46 0
  Team WORK 7,483 0.33 0
  Liberal Democrats 7,433 0.32 0 Steady
  Locals United - Back to Basics 5,128 0.22 0 Steady
  Independent Socialist 4,428 0.19 1 Increase 1
  Logan Needs Moore 4,362 0.19 0 Steady
  Independent One Nation 3,928 0.17 1 Steady
  Better Families 2,395 0.10 0 Steady
  Whig 1,825 0.08 0 Steady
  Independent United Australia 1,352 0.06 0 Steady
  Civil Liberties & Motorists 586 0.03 0 Steady
  Team Josh Weazel 410 0.02 2
  Independent Katter's Australian 409 0.02 1 Decrease 1
 Total[a] 2,287,588 94.55 512
Invalid/blank votes 131,775 5.45
Turnout 2,419,363 77.28
Registered voters 3,130,716

Mayoral elections

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Most local councils are undivided, meaning the total number of votes is greater than the total number of ballots. This row lists the number of ballots.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "2020 Local Government Elections". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Queensland elections: coronavirus poses 'lethal risk' to voters, experts say". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Green, Antony (23 February 2024). "Election Preview". ABC News.
  4. ^ "Is my council a divided, multi-member divided or undivided council?" (PDF). Electoral Commission of Queensland.
  5. ^ "How Ipswich will be divided after next council election". Brisbane Times. 11 July 2019.
  6. ^ a b "First-past-the-post voting". Electoral Commission of Queensland.
  7. ^ "Qld Local Government". ABC News.
  8. ^ "Govt makes new Mackay council undivided". ABC News. 28 September 2007.
  9. ^ "Mayor reveals her starting line-up for election". Townsville Bulletin. 9 December 2019.
  10. ^ Green, Antony. "Election Preview - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News.
  11. ^ "2020 Local government elections - Candidate list in ballot paper order" (PDF). Electoral Commission of Queensland.
  12. ^ "Cairns election: Jen Sackley reveals North Queensland State Alliance contenders". Cairns Post.