The Queensland government will move within days to ban developer donations to state political parties and local government candidates, the premier has said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk flagged the developer donor ban and a change to conflict-of-interest rules in council votes within hours of Queensland’s corruption watchdog recommending them to combat perceptions that secretive, wealthy donors had “compromised” local government.
“Let me be very clear – I fully support both those recommendations,” Palaszczuk said on Wednesday in the wake of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s Belcarra report.
She added: “I will not make rules for local councils that I am not prepared to follow myself, so any changes we make will apply to state, as well as local government.”
Palaszczuk said she would present cabinet on Monday with her submission on the CCC report, which “highlights serious cultural and structural issues within specific councils and Queensland local government more broadly”.
“Queenslanders should have confidence in the transparency and integrity of all levels of government,” she said.
The CCC had said the developer donor ban, one of 31 recommendations on councils, may have to extend to state politics to be consistent. It recommended banning donations from property developers to local councillors and candidates, a measure already in place in New South Wales, where controversy subsequently arose from moves to get around the ban.
Both Labor and the Liberal National party in Queensland have taken significant contributions from the property and construction industries for many years. The measure could stop millions of dollars going into party coffers in the long run.
The CCC announced it would not pursue prosecutions against prominent mayors and councillors, despite there being sufficient evidence for referring them for electoral law breaches in the 2016 local government elections.
However, the CCC said investigations were ongoing into the Logan mayor, Luke Smith, over the use of his “Logan Futures” fund to create an “artificial separation” between him and his donors. The fund was poorly governed, the CCC found, which undermined transparency around big donations, some of which were “made in cash and handed directly to Smith”.
It also referred Penny Toland, who ran unsuccessfully for Gold Coast mayor, to the electoral commission of Queensland over allegations that she knowingly failed to disclose the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union as a donor.
The CCC found that Toland’s claim she was unaware of a CFMEU donation of $38,241 as “gifts in-kind” to her campaign “does not seem credible”.
The CCC also named the Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, the Moreton Bay mayor, Allan Sutherland, former Ipswich deputy mayor Paul Tully and Gold Coast councillor Kristyn Boulton.
The CCC found Tate failed to use a dedicated bank account for donations, Sutherland failed to disclose he was running in a group of candidates, Tully failed to disclose gifts from three donors or run a dedicated bank account, and Boulton incorrectly attributed LNP donations.
However, the CCC’s cited reasons for not referring the four to the electoral commission of Queensland included technicalities such as that the time limit on prosecution had lapsed.
It further found Tate’s and Tully’s failures to keep a dedicated bank account was a systemic issue.
The CCC launched Operation Belcarra in September 2016 following an unprecedented number of complaints about funding and disclosure against candidates who ran in the Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Ipswich and Logan council elections.
In its report, the CCC found reform was needed to correct “widespread noncompliance” with electoral legislation, as well as to improve equity, transparency, integrity and accountability.
The chair of the CCC, Alan MacSporran, said the nature of council work meant they often had “close connections” with developers, which could lead to suggestions of impropriety.
“Although the CCC acknowledges that this, too, may not be a perfect solution, continued public concern about the influence of property developer donations on council decision making demands a stronger response than transparency alone,” MacSporran said in the report.
The commission also called for an end to councillors ruling for themselves whether they can vote on the council floor on decisions where they have declared a conflict of interest. It said those decisions should be made by fellow councillors.
The independent state parliamentary speaker, Peter Wellington, told the Guardian last month he supported an outright ban on councillors having any role in dealings on donor projects.
The CCC also cleared federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert of wrongdoing for facilitating party donations of $30,000 to his aides Boulton and Felicity Stevenson when they ran as independent candidates at the Gold Coast election.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
