City of Brisbane - Governance

Governance

The City of Brisbane is governed by the Brisbane City Council, the largest local council in Australia. The Brisbane City Council has its power divided between a powerful executive Lord Mayor, a parliamentary-style council of twenty-six councillors representing single-member wards of approximately 23,000 voters, and a Civic Cabinet comprising the Lord Mayor and the chairpersons of the seven standing committees drawn from the membership of Council. Due to the City of Brisbane's status as the country's largest LGA, the Lord Mayor is elected by the largest single-member electorate in Australia. The seven standing committees of Council are:

• Community Services Committee
• Environment and Sustainability Committee
• Finance Committee
• Public Transport Committee
• Roads, TransApex and Traffic Committee
• Urban Planning and Economic Development Committee
• Water and City Businesses Committee

The council also owns three business units which are city-owned enterprises managed on commercial lines:

• Brisbane CityWorks
• Brisbane Transport
• Brisbane Water

Following Local Government elections on 28 April 2012, the Lord Mayor and 18 councillors are members of the Liberal National Party while 7 are from the Australian Labor Party with 1 independent. The current Lord Mayor of Brisbane is Graham Quirk of the LNP, who was elected Mayor in his own right on 28 April 2012 after having been appointed to the Lord Mayoralty in April 2011 when civil engineer Campbell Newman resigned to make an ultimately successful bid to become Premier of Queensland. The current Deputy Mayor is Adrian Schrinner. The day-to-day management of Council's operations is the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer who is currently Colin Jensen.

Elections are held every four years with ballots for the Lord Mayoralty and the individual councillors being held simultaneously. Voting is compulsory for all eligible electors. The election in March 2004 resulted in the unusual situation of a Liberal (later LNP after a July 2008 Merger) Lord Mayor co-existing with a Labor majority on Council, resulting in remarkably few conflicts over civic budgets and Council policy. The Liberal National Party gained a 5.5% swing on the councillor votes in the March 2008 election, resulting in a Liberal councillor majority with a Liberal Lord Mayor (Lord Mayor Campbell Newman won re-election with 60% of the primary vote). Graham Quirk won re-election as Lord Mayor (having been appointed to the position in April 2011) in 2012 with 61.94% of the vote and the LNP gained an additional 3 wards. The next election will be held in 2016.

The Brisbane City Council is incorporated under the City of Brisbane Act 1924, while other local governments in Queensland are governed by the Local Government Act 1993.

Council meetings are held at Level 5, 157 Ann St, Brisbane City every Tuesday at 2pm except during recess and holiday periods. This temporary venue is in use due to the restoration work being performed on the traditional venue Brisbane City Hall. Meetings are generally open to the public.

Brisbane City Council aims to be carbon neutral by 2026 via the reduction of emissions and carbon offsetting.