The 2024 Queensland local elections were held on 16 March 2024 to elect the mayors and councils of the 77 local government areas in Queensland, Australia.[1][2]
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The original scheduled elections date of 30 March 2024 was moved ahead to 16 March to avoid clashing with Easter holidays.[3]
The elections were held on the same day as the state by-elections in Inala and Ipswich West.
There was a surprisingly large number of candidates elected unopposed in many council elections across Queensland, including some mayoral races. The lack of opposition to these candidates was criticised by experts as being bad for democracy.[4]
Electoral systems
Mayors and single-member wards
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.[5]
In the 22 councils that use single-member wards (including Brisbane and the Gold Coast) OPV is also used.[6]
Multi-member wards
Only Ipswich uses multi-member wards, with four two-member wards (resulting in eight total councillors).[7]
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.[8][9]
Undivided councils
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.[10]
Plurality block voting is used for these councils.[8]
Candidates
1,422 candidates nominated for the elections at the close of nominations on 14 February 2024.[11]
Steve "Jacko" Jackson, a former rugby league footballer, is running for mayor of Mackay. Former MP George Christensen is contesting Mackay Regional Council as a candidate for Jackson's Mackay First ticket.[12]
Another former federal MP, Andrew Laming, is running for mayor of Redland. On 25 January 2024, he confirmed he had dropped his Liberal National Party (LNP) membership, saying it had "no place" at a local level".[13]15 mayoral positions and 46 councillor positions were uncontested.[11]
On 21 February, the LNP disendorsed Brisbane City Council candidate Brock Alexander after comments he allegedly made about the parents of Daniel Morecombe came to light. Alexander was a candidate for Deagon Ward, and his name will still appear on the ballot as he was disendorsed after the close of nominations.[14]
An analysis from the ABC found that over 10% of independents in the elections were members of a political party.[15]
A large % of council positions were uncontested with only one candidate running.[16][17]
Party changes before elections
A number of councillors joined, left or formed parties before the 2024 elections.
| Council | Ward | Councillor | Former party | New party | Date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Coast | Division 9 | Glenn Tozer | Independent LNP | Independent | June 2020[18][19] | ||
| Cairns | Division 2 | Rob Pyne | Independent Socialist | Socialist Alliance | 23 September 2020[20] | ||
| Redland | Mayor | Karen Williams | Independent | Independent LNP | 17 May 2021[21] | ||
| Cairns | Division 9 | Brett Olds | Independent LNP | Independent | 20 September 2021[22] | ||
| Moreton Bay | Division 7 | Yvonne Barlow | Independent LNP | Independent | 2022[23][24] | ||
| Scenic Rim | Mayor | Greg Christensen | Independent LNP | Independent | 26 April 2023[25] | ||
| Cairns | Division 5 | Amy Eden | Cairns Unity | Team Eden | 14 July 2023[26][27] | ||
| Mackay | Unsubdivided | Belinda Hassan | Greg Williamson Alliance | Independent Labor | 15 December 2023[28] | ||
| Mackay | Unsubdivided | Fran Mann | Greg Williamson Alliance | Independent Labor | 15 December 2023[28] | ||
| Mackay | Unsubdivided | Justin Englert | Greg Williamson Alliance | Independent | 15 December 2023[28] | ||
| Mackay | Unsubdivided | Pauline Townsend | Greg Williamson Alliance | Independent | 15 December 2023[28] | ||
Results
All changes compared with the 2020 elections.