Overview

Two or more candidates in a local government election can form a group to campaign together, implement common policies, and work toward shared goals if elected to council. Candidates who form a group are also able to pool their electoral expenditure caps.

All candidates who are part of a group must still individually nominate for the election and meet the candidate eligibility requirements. For eligibility requirements and information about how to become a candidate, go to the Candidates page.

A group of candidates is not the same as a registered political party – candidates who are endorsed by a registered political party cannot be part of a group of candidates.

Please click on the tabs above to find out about the requirements for groups of candidates and how to become a group of candidates in a local government election.

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Group membership and campaign activities

Once you have decided to nominate as a candidate for a local government election, you may also choose to form a group with other candidates contesting the same local government area. You can only be a member of one group and each group can only have one mayoral candidate. A registered political party is not considered to be a group.

Candidates must register as a group with the ECQ before engaging in group campaign activities. It is an offence for candidates to engage in group campaign activities without being registered as a group.

Groups can campaign collectively. A group campaign activity is any of the following activities carried out by 2 or more candidates in an intentionally coordinated way:

  • using a common platform to promote the election of the candidate, including for example, the same political policies
  • candidates using the same advertisements, including pamphlets, billboards and any other media; the same campaign slogans, same brands or images, same how-to-vote cards; and other election material that promotes the election of the candidates
  • participating in the same fundraising activities or events
  • sharing the same resources for election campaigns, including human resources (other than volunteers) between the candidates
  • giving or sharing gifts or loans between the candidates.

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Registering or changing a group

If you and another candidate or candidates decide to campaign as a group, you can apply to register your group any time up to the day before election day.

If you’ve applied to register the group before the close of nominations for candidates, your group’s name will appear next to your name on ballot papers.

Note: each candidate in your group must still nominate as an individual candidate even if you have already registered as a group.

You can change your group’s membership or end your group’s campaigning (de-register) any time before election day. If you add a new candidate to your group, the existing group must not engage in group campaign activities with the new candidate until the proposed change is approved by the ECQ. Any changes to a group made after the close of nominations will not be reflected on the ballot paper.

Registrations, changes, and de-registrations must all be done through the ECQ Self Service Portal. To log in, register, or complete the required forms, click:

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Associated entities of groups of candidates

Under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011, a group of candidates and its associated entity are treated as 1 entity. An associated entity of a group of candidates is any entity which:

  • is controlled by a group of candidates
  • operates wholly or to a significant extent for the benefit of a group of candidates
  • operates for the dominant purpose of promoting a group of candidates.

For any gifts or loans made and electoral expenditure incurred, associated entities are required to meet the same real-time  disclosure obligations as their group of candidates. Electoral expenditure incurred by an associated entity counts towards its group’s expenditure cap.

Associated entities must use the dedicated campaign bank account of their group of candidates for a local government election. An associated entity’s record keeping requirements are the same as its group’s.

More information for groups of candidates and their associated entities about gifts and loans, incurring electoral expenditure, financial disclosure, compliance, and record keeping can be found by using the tabs above. The below fact sheet provides a more detailed funding and disclosure overview for associated entities and information about what is not an associated entity of a group of candidates.

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Appointing or changing agents

Agents play an important role in elections as they are responsible for ensuring a group of candidate’s obligations under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011 are met.

Your group of candidates must appoint an agent with the group’s registration. A member of your group can be appointed as the group’s agent.

Your group of candidates and your agent have a responsibility to familiarise yourselves with all relevant and current legislative provisions. Failure to do so cannot be used as an excuse for failing to comply with any legislative requirement.

For more information about who can be an agent, registration, and removal requirements, and more, see the fact sheets below.

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Using a dedicated campaign bank account

Dedicated campaign bank accounts for local government elections are required to ensure transparency of financial matters, including receiving gifts and loans and incurring electoral expenditure.

Your group must open this dedicated campaign bank account before applying to register as a group and you’ll need to provide the account details in this application. Only one dedicated campaign bank account is required for a registered group of candidates.

All gifts or loans received by members of your group must be deposited into your group’s dedicated campaign account. All campaign expenses including electoral expenditure for a local government election must be paid from your group’s dedicated campaign account. If you want to use your own personal money to fund your group’s campaign, you must transfer it into the group’s account before using it to pay campaign expenses.

There are restrictions about how amounts can be paid from the account. The use of a credit card is strictly prohibited.

Any amounts remaining in the account at the end of the election can only be dealt with in certain ways (see fact sheets below). Excess amounts cannot be transferred back into personal bank accounts.

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Receiving gifts and loans

It’s important that you and your group’s agent understand what a gift or loan is so that your group can meet its disclosure obligations under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011.

A gift is a transfer of money, property, or a service given without receiving something of equal or adequate value in return. A non-monetary gift (or gifts-in-kind) is a gift of any goods or services other than money.

A gift includes:

  • money given to a group of candidates
  • services provided at no or below cost
  • electoral expenditure gifted to a group of candidates
  • uncharged interest or an amount forgiven on a loan
  • part of a fundraising contribution that exceeds $200.

A gift does not include:

  • a property transferred under a will
  • a fundraising contribution of $200 or less
  • membership fees paid to a registered political party
  • money transferred from a candidate’s own personal funds to their group’s dedicated campaign bank account
  • volunteer labour or incidental use of a volunteer’s vehicle or equipment.

A loan is any of the following provided by a person or entity, other than a financial institution or by use of a credit card:

  • an advance of money
  • provision of credit or another form of financial accommodation
  • payment of an amount for, on behalf of, or at the request of, an entity, if there is an express or implied obligation to repay the amount
  • another transaction that is in effect a loan of money.

Note: this is not a comprehensive list of all types of gifts and loans. You should read Fact sheet 10 – Definition of gifts and loans for more detailed information.

A group of candidates has obligations to disclose gifts (including donations) and loans received. For more information about your group’s disclosure obligations, please click on the Real-time disclosure requirements tab above.

Prohibited donors

Queensland law bans political donations from property developers and industry bodies with property developers as a majority of their members.

It's illegal for a group of candidates to accept these prohibited donations.

For more information, see ECQ’s prohibited donor scheme page.

Anonymous gifts

It is unlawful for a group of candidates to receive anonymous gifts or loans totalling $500 or more. This includes gifts or loans where the name, address, or other required details of the donor are not known to the group.

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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 and your group’s agent should read the ECQ’s fact sheets and handbook for more detailed information about what is and 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.

The expenditure cap for your group of candidates is shared by your group’s members.

The shared expenditure cap is the total of each group member’s individual cap amount up to the maximum number of vacancies in the local government area the group is contesting. Please see Fact sheet 24 – Expenditure caps for groups of candidates, which explains how to calculate your group’s expenditure cap.

Each local government election has a capped expenditure period. During this period, your group 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.

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Electoral advertising and how-to-vote cards

There are specific requirements for groups of candidates relating to electoral advertising and election material. Your group of candidates must ensure they are aware of all regulations relating to:

  • the broadcast and publication of election material
  • the authorisation of election material
  • how-to-vote cards.

How-to-vote cards show how you want voters to rank their preferences on their ballot paper when voting for you and your group in an election. How-to-vote cards have specific requirements under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011 and must be approved by the ECQ before your group distributes them during an election period.

You or a member of your group must submit your how-to-vote card to the ECQ for approval at least 7 business days before the day you’ll distribute your cards. The ECQ then has up to 5 business days to review the card and provide you with an acceptance or rejection via email, with accepted cards being displayed on the ECQ’s website. Please be mindful of these timeframes – any printing costs incurred before the ECQ accepts a how-to-vote card will be at your group’s own risk.

You can find more detailed information, including illustrations of acceptable how-to-vote cards, in the how-to-vote card fact sheet (see link below).

While federal and state elections and referendums have media blackout periods, these do not apply to local government elections in Queensland. The ECQ does not regulate media blackout laws.

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Real-time disclosure requirements

Agents of groups of candidates are required to use the ECQ’s Electronic Disclosure System (EDS) to disclose:

  • gifts and loans of $500 or more – including cumulative amounts that total $500 or more from a single donor
  • all electoral expenditure – once the total amount spent reaches $500 or more.

Most of the information in a disclosure return is accessible by the public.

Generally, disclosure returns must be lodged within 7 business days of the electoral expenditure being incurred or gift or loan being received. This is known as real-time disclosure. In the last 7 business days before election day, disclosures of electoral expenditure made and gifts or loans received must be lodged within 24 hours.

After an election, your agent must also disclose the total value of all your group’s electoral expenditure as well as gifts and loans your group received. You can find more information about this by clicking on the Lodging an election summary return tab above.

Failure to disclose gifts or loans or electoral expenditure, within the time required is an offence under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011.

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Record keeping

Your agent and group must keep all records relating to an election campaign for 5 years after the day that the record is made. Records are subject to audit procedures and compliance activities conducted by the ECQ. There are substantial penalties for not complying with record keeping responsibilities and obligations.

Good record keeping supports full and accurate disclosure. As a group of candidates, you and your agent should:

  • record receipt of gifts and loans as soon as practical so they are not overlooked or forgotten
  • save any paper records electronically to ensure they are not destroyed
  • keep comprehensive records orderly for easy and quick retrieval
  • regularly back-up electronic records
  • ensure record keeping is up to date.

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Lodging an election summary return

Disclosure returns provide transparency for the movement of money used to support election participants in a local government election.  

In addition to reporting of gifts, loans, and electoral expenditure in real-time, your group’s agent is required to lodge an election summary return for your group within 15 weeks after a local government election.

The election summary return is a summary of all gifts and loans received and all electoral expenditure incurred for the purposes of an election. It must also include a bank statement from your group’s dedicated campaign bank account. All other gifts and loans not disclosed in real-time must also be accounted for in the election summary return.

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Compliance

Election participants are encouraged to read about the ECQ’s Compliance Approach which includes the ECQ’s expectations of candidates and commitments to enforcing electoral laws. To report non-compliance, please check our Commitments and Expectations to ensure you are reporting the non-compliance to the correct agency.

The ECQ publishes a range of fact sheets and handbooks for election participants, including groups of candidates and their agents. You can use the ECQ website’s information for candidates and groups of candidates to learn about your obligations under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011. Candidates and groups of candidates should also familiarise themselves with the full content of the relevant legislation and seek independent legal advice if required.

A candidate or councillor who commits an offence under the Local Government Electoral Act 2011 may be subject to fines or prosecution in court, depending on the seriousness of the offence. Further, a sitting councillor will be automatically suspended if they are charged with an integrity offence or a serious integrity offence as specified under either the Local Government Act 2009 or the City of Brisbane Act 2010.

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