2020 Queensland local elections

For the state election held in October, see 2020 Queensland state election.

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 1 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 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 1 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

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. ^[3]

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

Multi-member wards

See also: 2020 Ipswich City Council election

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

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

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

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

Main article: Results of the 2020 Queensland local elections

Party		Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independents	954,307	41.72		424
	Liberal National	279,793	12.23		19
	Greg Williamson Alliance	272,691	11.92		6
	Labor	200,428	8.76		5
	Independent Liberal National	169,364	7.40		15	5
	Greens	141,006	6.16		1
	Independent Labor	79,606	3.48		7	2
	Team Jenny Hill	44,715	1.95		9
	Christensen & Keioskie	43,781	1.91		0
	Cairns Unity	26,395	1.15		6
	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	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
	North Queensland State Alliance	12,469	0.55		0
	It's Time for Townsville	12,375	0.54		0
	Animal Justice	10,665	0.47		0
	Our Voice	10,587	0.46		0
	Team WORK	7,483	0.33		0
	Liberal Democrats	7,433	0.32		0
	Locals United - Back to Basics	5,128	0.22		0
	Independent Socialist	4,428	0.19		1	1
	Logan Needs Moore	4,362	0.19		0
	Independent One Nation	3,928	0.17		1
	Better Families	2,395	0.10		0
	Whig	1,825	0.08		0
	Independent United Australia	1,352	0.06		0
	Civil Liberties & Motorists	586	0.03		0
	Team Josh Weazel	410	0.02		2
	Independent Katter's Australian	409	0.02		1	1
Total [lower-alpha 1]		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

Main article: 2020 Queensland mayoral elections § Results

See also

• 2020 Brisbane City Council election
• 2020 Gold Coast City Council election
• 2020 Townsville City Council election

Notes

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

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. "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.