Incurring electoral expenditure

The term electoral expenditure has a specific meaning for local government elections – it's incurred for a campaign purpose and can include the cost of expenses like:

opinion polling or research
advertisements broadcast at a cinema, on radio or television, or on the internet
billboards and signs.

This is not an exhaustive list – you should read the ECQ’s fact sheets and handbook for more detailed information about what is and what is not electoral expenditure, as not all campaign expenses will be considered electoral expenditure.

Expenditure caps apply for local government elections. The ECQ calculates and publishes the caps for each election based on electoral roll data.

The expenditure cap varies across each local government area on a sliding scale with reference to the number of electors. Brisbane City Council candidates have set caps. Your cap also varies based on whether you are contesting a mayoral or councillor position. The ECQ publishes the notice of the expenditure cap amounts for candidates on its website. This will be available –

for the regular quadrennial local government elections – before the capped period begins
for a by-election – at the same time as the notice for the election is issued.

Each local government election has a capped expenditure period. During this period, you may only incur electoral expenses up to your capped amount. The capped expenditure period for an election will be published in the notice of expenditure caps for the election.

Candidates must disclose their electoral expenditure to the ECQ in real-time during their disclosure period, as well as in an election summary return after the election.

Video overviews

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