Committee Details

Committee’s report

The committee tabled its Report No. 8, 58^th Parliament - Local Government (Empowering Councils) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 on 30 January 2026. The government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations. Once tabled, the government response will be published here. The report will be debated in the Legislative Assembly in due course.

View: Report
View: Executive Summary

About the Bill

On 20 November 2025, the Minister for Local Government and Water and Minister for Fire, Disaster Recovery and Volunteers introduced the Local Government (Empowering Councils) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Local Government, Small Business and Customer Service Committee for detailed consideration.

View: Explanatory speech
View: Bill
View: Explanatory Notes
View: Statement of compatibility

The objectives of the Bill are to:

• empower councils by:
  • providing that senior executive employees of a local government are appointed by a panel of the local government, rather than solely by the chief executive officer (CEO)
  • providing that Brisbane City Council appoints its senior contract employees, rather than the CEO
  • facilitating local government access to essential State-owned quarry materials, and
  • clarifying Indigenous local government rating powers and provide a framework to facilitate Indigenous local government rating in the future
• empower mayors by:
  • reinforcing that the mayor is the official spokesperson of a local government, and
  • clarifying that the mayor is the default chairperson of ordinary and special meetings of a local government, and committees for which the mayor is the chairperson. This role includes managing the conduct of the participants at the meeting.
• improve the councillor conflicts of interest and register of interests frameworks
• reduce unnecessary red tape and regulation
• provide certainty to councillors about matters relating to remuneration, leaves of absence, vacation of office, and eligibility
• promote good governance and decision-making
• enhance safeguards for local government election candidates and participants, and
• make various minor, administrative and/or technical amendments.

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts and answers to questions taken on notice are available under the Related Publications tab.

TIMELINE