State to run inquiry into how to deal with squabbling councillors

The Queensland government has announced an inquiry into how the complaints of squabbling local councillors should be dealt with, as the state deals with roughly 1000 complaints each year and some councillors deem the system broken entirely.

Leader of the house Dr Christian Rowan announced the parliamentary inquiry on Thursday, calling for a deep-dive on the effectiveness of the Office of the Independent Assessor (OIA) and the Councillor Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

Rowan said alternative models for the assessor should be looked at, as well as rights of review under the tribunal scheme, and any other change to either body that parliament’s Local Government, Small Business and Customer Service Committee considers desirable.

The call comes weeks after a CCT decision that Ipswich Deputy Mayor Nicole Jonic had, on the balance of probabilities, engaged in misconduct by sharing a confidential council report with a journalist in 2022.

Jonic and fellow councillor Jacob Madsen, who is a member of the Labor Party, had been cleared of misconduct in relation to comments they made about Mayor Teresa Harding, who is an LNP member.

The pair had accused Harding of influencing a report about community sentiment amid a debate over the renaming of a bridge and road named after former mayor Paul Pisasale, a Labor member.

Pisasale, mayor from 2003 to 2017, was found guilty of corruption and sexual assault in 2020 and released on parole in 2022.

In a statement online this week, Harding welcomed the finding.

“As someone who was elected as Mayor to clean up our city after the corruption and maladministration of the dismissed council, it was shocking to have my integrity questioned for simply doing my job and providing feedback to the CEO on this report,” she said.

Jonic took issue with the statement, claiming it conflated the misconduct finding in relation to the leak – which she said was accidental – with the complaint about their public comments, which she had been cleared of.

In a statement of his own, Madsen said he had not been found of guilty of anything.

The other body to be subject to the committee’s probe is the OIA, the first port-of-call for councillor conduct complaints.

While complaints have decreased – the OIA received 368 complaints in the second half of 2025, a 28 per cent decrease from the same timeframe the year before – its processes have come under scrutiny amid allegations of internal dysfunction at Redland City Council, south-east of Brisbane City.

At a committee session earlier this year, Independent Assessor Charles Kohn said the average cost to the state of each complaint was $444, no matter the outcome.

Redlands was the council where the highest number of complaints were received, both in 2024/25 and the first half of this financial year.

Of the 1008 complaints received in 2024/25, 114 were about Redlands councillors. Since becoming Redlands mayor in March 2024, Jos Mitchell has received roughly 50 complaints.

Mitchell recently called out a culture of bullying and harassment in politics before taking six weeks of medical leave, and has repeatedly called for OIA reform.

“My great concern, and why I’m calling for change to the legislation, is because I have concerns about this process and its ability to be used as a political weapon,” she said late last year.

The system is not just costly to the state, as when the OIA refers investigations back to the council, it comes at a cost to ratepayers. In Redlands last year, three investigations into Mitchell cost a total of $45,000.

In a statement about the inquiry, Local Government Minister Ann Leahy said the government had promised reform, and would alter legislation if required.

“Councillors play a vital role in serving their communities, and it’s essential that the framework governing their conduct is fit-for-purpose. This inquiry is an important step in strengthening public confidence in the system,” she said.

The committee will report back to parliament by November 6.

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