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Four Queensland mayors and one councillor have been immediately suspended following the passing of reforms to local government legislation.
Logan Mayor Luke Smith, Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli, Doomadgee Mayor Edric Walden and Hope Vale Mayor Greg McLean have all been stood down by Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe.
Logan councillor Stacey McIntosh has also been suspended.
The mayors and councillors will receive full pay and cannot appeal the suspensions.
The suspensions were able to occur because of laws passed by the Queensland Parliament last week, which result in the automatic suspension of a councillor facing serious charges.
- Luke Smith: official corruption and perjury
- Stacey McIntosh: stealing
- Andrew Antoniolli: fraud
- Edric Walden: misconduct in public office and forgery
- Greg McLean: fraud
Logan mayor claims he was 'robbed' of position
Cr Smith from Logan defied repeated calls for him to stand down prior to his suspension and vowed to defend the charges laid against him.
He was charged after a lengthy investigation by the CCC as part of Operation Belcarra, which probed the conduct of candidates during the 2016 local government elections.
Cr Smith said he found out about his suspension through Twitter.
He said none of the allegations against him had been proven and he felt "robbed" of his position.
"The community should be deeply concerned that their democratically elected representatives can be removed from office while still under the presumption of innocence," Cr Smith said.
"Frustratingly, the wheels of justice turn very, very slowly, and these changes to legislation will likely end the careers of many good people who don't deserve it."
In an email to staff, Cr Smith said he did not expect the matters would be resolved before the next council election in March 2020.
"Leaving here will be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," he said.
Deadline looms for Ipswich council
The amendments to the local government laws also give the minister power to sack councils if it is in the public interest.
The focus will now shift to whether Mr Hinchliffe uses this to sack the entire Ipswich Council, having last issued councillors a 21-day show cause notice to prove why they should not be dismissed.
The councillors must make their submission by this Thursday.
Cr Antoniolli had already stood aside from his position at Ipswich prior to Monday's announcement of the suspensions.
His predecessor, Paul Pisasale, is also facing a range of offences including corruption.
In total, the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) has made 13 arrests during its investigation of the council.
Confusion over Government's announcement
The Queensland Government was on Monday night scrambling to fix an extraordinary bungle which resulted in the premature announcement that four mayors and a councillor had been suspended, hours before new laws had been signed off by the Governor.
Logan mayor Luke Smith and councillor Stacey McIntosh, Ipswich mayor Andrew Antoniolli, the mayor of Hope Vale Greg McLean and the Mayor of Doomadgee Edric Waldron — who all face various charges — have been stood down retrospectively under the council integrity legislation which was passed last Thursday but required the Governor’s assent.
However the office of the Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe wrongly issued a media statement at 4.20pm, based on departmental advice that Governor Paul de Jersey had put his signature to the laws to trigger the suspensions.
In fact that announcement had jumped the gun as assent had not been given at that stage, leading to several hours of swirling confusion and mystery as the Government realised its mistake and rushed to get to the paperwork to Government House, where it was due to be signed off on Monday night.
The stand-down powers took effect from 12:00am Monday, meaning once the laws were given assent, the effect would be the same as the pre-emptive announcement and the five would have been retrospectively suspended since then.
But the Opposition seized on the confusion to launch a new attack on Mr Hinchliffe, who returned to the ministry after stepping aside from Cabinet last year as Transport Minister during the Queensland Rail timetable debacle.
Topics: government-and-politics, parliament, state-parliament, law-crime-and-justice, corruption, fraud-and-corporate-crime, loganlea-4131, ipswich-4305, qld, doomadgee-4830, loganholme-4129, hope-vale-4895
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