May 11, 2016
Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio has been elected Deputy Chairman of the local government lobby group, the South East Queensland Council of Mayors.
The Council consists of the 11 mayors representing Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redland and Gold Coast city councils; and Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, Somerset, Toowoomba, Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast regional councils.
The group held its first Board meeting since the local government elections on Friday where Cr Antonio’s appointment was confirmed.
The Council of Mayors (SEQ) was set up in September 2005 as an independent voice to represent one of Australia’s fastest growing regions, south-east Queensland.
It is Australia’s largest regional local government advocacy organisation.
It aims to advocate for a better–resourced SEQ region with world standard infrastructure to support economic development, influence the levels of government, and collaborate on programs across the region.
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Meanwhile, a post-election analysis by the Local Government Association Of Queensland (LGAQ) indicates that general dissatisfaction with the 2008 forced Council mergers may be slowly abating.
Voter turnout was up while and councillor turnover dropped slightly.
Queensland recorded an average voter turnout of 82 per cent at March’s local government elections, the LGAQ says. This was almost 2 per cent higher than in 2012.
The rate of informal votes cast for mayors was 4 per cent and 6 per cent for councillors.
Thirty-six mayors were returned, including eight unopposed.
The 41 new mayors comprised 15 sitting councillors, seven previous mayors and 19 newcomers to local government.
The turnover of councillors (49.8 per cent) was slightly less than the 2012 rate (51.2 per cent), but was still substantially higher than 2008 (29 per cent) and 2004 (12.3 per cent).
Female councillor candidates had a slightly higher success rate than their male counterparts.
They represented 32.2 per cent of nominations in the March elections but were elected in 32.9 per cent of the 502 available positions.
- Download the LGAQ Report (356kb PDF)
