Moreton Bay Regional Council - electoral arrangements review

The Local Government Change Commission (Change Commission) has completed its review of a proposal to change the classification of the Moreton Bay Regional Council to a city council. See the Minister’s referral here.

Final report

The Change Commission’s final report has been provided to the Minister responsible for Local Government.

The Change Commission recommended that the classification be changed to Moreton Bay City Council.

In reaching its recommendation, the Change Commission gave consideration to all views and materials presented to it, including the legislative requirements for classification as a city, community views on the proposed change and the local government principles of the Local Government Act 2009.

View the full report here PDF (0.42 MB)

Appendices to the report:

What did the Change Commission consider as part of its review?

The Change Commission’s review process included:

  • considering the detailed submission from the Moreton Bay Regional Council
  • conducting community consultation through a call for written submissions
  • assessing the legislative criteria for changing a local government classification set out in section 13 of the Local Government Regulation 2012, and
  • analysing other information relevant to the review, such as financial grant information and comparative data on other cities in Queensland

Consultation

The Change Commission considered public feedback as part of the review and accepted written submissions from anyone who wished to provide their views or information they wanted to be considered.

The period for providing submissions closed on 28 November 2022. All submissions can be found here.

The Moreton Bay Regional Council submission was provided to the Change Commission as part of the referral to the Minister and can be found here.

Other considerations

The Change Commission also considered other matters prescribed under Division 2 of the Local Government Regulation 2012, including the following criteria that must be met for a local government area to be declared a city:

  • the area is the centre of a region providing commercial, industrial, health and public sector services for the region
  • the area has, for the three years immediately prior had a:
    • a population of at least 25,000; and
    • a population of at least 15,000 in its urban centre; and
    • a population density of at least 150 people for each square kilometre of its urban centre.

The Change Commission also assessed whether a change to the classification of the council was in the public interest by considering:

  • matters prescribed under Part 3, Division 2 of the Local Government Act 2009, and
  • the views of the community.