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.

Video overviews

Links to further information: