A quiet transformation has occurred within the majority Liberal National Party (LNP) controlled Brisbane City Council, ahead of the March 2020 elections.
Former Speaker of the Queensland Parliament and QUT Adjunct Associate Professor John Mickel said although the contest is barely nine months away, the LNP had strategically replaced some long term Councillors, giving itself the jump on the opposition.
The new Councillors have 9 months to embed themselves in their divisions and will face the electors as incumbents.
“Local governments often have much more direct impact on the lives of residents in those areas than state or federal parliaments and yet it sometimes seems they are overlooked,” Professor Mickel said.
“The LNP has a clever renewal strategy for a party asking voters for a fifth term in Government while Labor has had a poor electoral track record over the past 15 years in the Council.
“Labor lost the Mayoralty in 2004 and has not won a seat from the Liberals since 2000. At the last election whilst it improved its share of the Mayoralty vote it lost a further two divisions bringing it to its lowest level of local representation for decades.”
Professor Mickel said that in recent months there has been complete and highly significant transitions taking place within the Council’s LNP; all of which have been done to the letter of the law.
“Former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, has been replaced by his deputy Adrian Schrinner (Chandler),” Professor Mickel said.
“Krista Adams (Holland Park) has become Deputy Mayor while former LNP Councillor Julian Simmonds is now the Federal member for Ryan and his former Walter Taylor ward is filled by James Mackay.
“On the north side, former LNP State Minister, Tracy Davis, has replaced Norm Wyndham in McDowall.
“South of the river, Ryan Murphy who has vacated Doboy Ward has replaced Councillor Schrinner in Chandler and on Monday the LNP chose Lisa Attwood to fill the vacancy left by Ryan Murphy.
“Meanwhile in the inner city Fiona Cunningham has replaced Coorparoo Councillor Ian McKenzie.
“All of these changes have occurred completely within local Government guidelines.”
Professor Mickel (pictured above right) said the LNP has played the long game and given their candidates and sitting Councillors a big edge because voters will know them long before the elections are held.
“Historically, sitting Councillors are very hard to beat in an election,” he said.
“In contrast, leading up to 2016, Labor had 3 retiring Councillors – one of whom, Victoria Newton (Deagon), retired before the election giving newcomer Jared Cassidy time to establish himself.
“The result for Labor from 2016 was that they lost the two wards with retiring Councillors serving their full terms.
"Labor holds just five of the 26 wards, one of which is Jared Cassidy’s, now the only Labor member on the north side of Brisbane.
“Since the 2016 election, Labor’s only new face is in Morningside where former Leader Shayne Sutton resigned with Labor’s replacement Kara Cook winning the by-election in January 2018.
“The question for 2020 is whether Labor has learnt from the past and is taking notice of the stealth-like tactics of the LNP.”
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