Article: Stay out of council, Lord Mayor tells outgoing MPs

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Stay out of council, Lord Mayor tells outgoing MPs

Stay out of council, Lord Mayor tells outgoing MPs

A position on the Brisbane City Council is not a ''consolation prize'' for newly out-of-work Labor MPs, LNP Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says.

Cr Quirk's comments came after former Brisbane Central MP Grace Grace announced she would stand at the upcoming council elections on April 28.

Ms Grace, who had held the seat of Brisbane Central since it was vacated by retiring Premier Peter Beattie in 2007, lost it on Saturday to LNP candidate Robert Cavallucci, who claimed almost 54% of the two-party preferred vote.

Ms Grace told 612 ABC Brisbane this morning she would now stand for the Brisbane Central ward at the upcoming council election, which will be held on April 28.

She said she first found out there was a position vacant for a Labor candidate for the ward on election night and had decided to run ''after a very sleepless day and night''.

''A lot of my issues have been local, in Brisbane Central [retiring Labor councillor for Central] David Hinchliffe and I have worked remarkably well, we're always at the same places, the issues are fundamentally the same, and I believe there is a lot of angst in that local government area in my electorate,'' she said.

However, the Lord Mayor told reporters in Brisbane today that Queenslanders had ''spoken loudly'' in rejecting Labor at the state election.

''[Ms Grace's decision] smacks of people thinking they are owed a job and begs the question of how many other failed state Labor politicians are lining up to nominate for council elections?'' he said.

Nominations for the 2012 local council elections must be lodged by noon tomorrow.

Earlier today, Ms Grace posted on Twitter that the previous Labor candidate, Peter Crowther, ''decided on his own accord to no longer run in Central before Saturday'' and supported her ''100%''.

''It was a hard decision to go straight into another campaign but I am passionate for my local community and we need to rebuild from there,'' she wrote.

Cr Quirk said Ms Grace's announcement raised ''serious questions'' about a ''backroom deal'' that allowed Ms Grace to be nominated in Mr Crowther's place.

''How much pressure did Labor Party backroom heavies put on [Mr] Crowther to resign after he spent more than a year working full-time in the local community with the support of [Cr] Hinchliffe?'' he said.

The Brisbane Central ward is very similar to the state government seat of Brisbane Central and includes the CBD, Spring Hill, and New Farm and Teneriffe, and parts of Kelvin Grove, Newstead, Bowen Hills, Herston, Newmarket, Windsor and Grange.

Ms Grace said part of her decision had been wanting to work to rebuild Labor ''from the local up''.

''I must be mad, I've just gone through a very very hard campaign and now I've got to go into another one, but as I said I love the local area, I love the local issue, I've worked a lot with local issues, I think that I still have a lot to offer,'' she said.

During her ABC interview, Ms Grace also threw her support behind Inala MP Annastacia Palaszczuk to be Queensland Labor's next leader.

''She is a fantastic woman, and I have a lot of time for Annastacia, she has very good qualities. I now don't vote in the caucus, it's now up to them to determine who they believe is the person who not only wants to do the job, and who's able to do it as well,'' she said.

Ms Palaszczuk, who was Transport Minister in the Bligh government, was one of the handful of Labor MPs to retain their seats on Saturday night.

North Queensland MP Curtis Pitt is also being touted as a potential leader.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/state-election-2012/stay-out-of-council-lord-mayor-tells-outgoing-mps-20120326-1vtfq.html

[#Metro]

... says the Lord Mayor that was parachuted in ... LOL

[Mr X]

... says the Lord Mayor that was parachuted in ... LOL

Huh?
He naturally took over as Lord Mayor after Campbell Newman left. Newman wasn't voted out and I suspect he would have been easily re-elected in the council elections if he remained as Lord Mayor.

State candidates cannot run as BCC council candidates because the state election result hasn't been called officially by the ECQ and hence they cannot be candidates in two different elections at the same time.
Grace Grace will not be running for Central ward. Heather Beattie will.

[Golliwog]

I don't think it was parachuted in, but I think what TT was referring to was when Campbell announced he was going to run for State politics, he didn't resign from the BCC for a week or something, as that way they avoided having an election then for a new lord mayor as it made it within 1 year of what was then meant to be the next council election. IIRC, he resigned the day that 1 year timeframe passed.