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

[edit]

### Mayors and single-member wards

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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[a] | 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

[edit]

Main article: 2020 Queensland mayoral elections § Results

## See also

[edit]

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

## Notes

[edit]

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

[edit]

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. ^ a b "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.

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