REDLAND City Council attracted more complaints to Queensland’s councillor watchdog than any other local government in the state during the first half of the financial year, with new parliamentary material also showing the city was among councils recording multiple conflict-of-interest complaints.
At a public hearing of the Local Government, Small Business and Customer Service Committee on March 4, Acting Independent Assessor Charles Kohn said Redland was the top council for complaints lodged with the Office of the Independent Assessor between July and December 2025.
Asked which councils accounted for the highest number of complaints in that period, Mr Kohn told the committee the top five were Redland City Council, Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast City Council, Southern Downs Regional Council and Logan City Council.
He said Logan’s figure had been skewed by a complainant later deemed vexatious, but gave no such qualification for Redland, which topped the list.
Further answers later provided to the committee show the OIA received 35 conflict-of-interest complaints across Queensland between July 1 and December 31, 2025, with Redland City Council among nine councils to receive two such complaints during that period.
Brisbane City Council and Flinders Shire Council recorded the highest number, with three each.
The same material shows 77 per cent of all conflict-of-interest complaints in that six-month period were dismissed at the assessment stage.
The revelation emerged during a broader parliamentary examination of complaint trends, dismissal rates and the threshold for launching misconduct investigations against councillors across Queensland.
Mr Kohn told the committee complaint numbers had dropped significantly overall, with 368 complaints received between July and December 2025, down 28 per cent on the same period the previous year.
He said that decline was historically consistent with the second year of a council term, when councillors were usually more familiar with their obligations and legislative requirements.
“It is encouraging to see fewer complaints being made about councillors,” he said.
Even so, committee members repeatedly pressed the OIA on why dismissal rates remained high, with most complaints failing to progress beyond the assessment stage.
Additional information provided by the OIA after the hearing sheds more light on that pattern.
In 2024-25, a total of 849 complaints, or 81 per cent of all complaints assessed, were dismissed or recorded as no further action.
Of those, 465 were found not to involve suspected conduct breach or misconduct, 100 were deemed an unjustifiable use of resources, 69 lacked sufficient information to progress, 60 were outside the OIA’s jurisdiction and 40 were judged not in the public interest to pursue.
A further 11 were considered vexatious, frivolous or lacking substance, while six were lodged outside statutory time limits.
Mr Kohn told the hearing the number of matters that advanced to formal investigation was a better guide than raw complaint numbers, saying investigations had consistently sat at around 10 per cent of complaints.
“The raising of investigations is a more accurate indicator of the complaints that have some substance to them that require more effort to determine whether there has been some breach or not,” he said.
He said many complaints were dismissed because they did not involve a councillor performing an official function, did not amount to a breach under the Act, or were better dealt with through guidance and training rather than formal disciplinary action.
The OIA also defended its handling times, with Mr Kohn saying the average time to assess a complaint this financial year was under three working days and the average time to complete an investigation was 45 working days.
He said the office had completed 40 investigations in the first six months of the financial year and had 21 still under way at December 31.
Mr Kohn said the watchdog had increasingly used statutory recommendations as an alternative to prosecution, with 24 recommendations issued in the six-month period.
Since that mechanism was introduced in 2023, 120 recommendations had been made, with 70 per cent of councillors receiving only one.
“This indicates a low recurrence of the specific conduct issues addressed through recommendations,” he said.
The committee also heard the OIA had developed new council-by-council complaint snapshots to help chief executives identify emerging conduct issues and target training.
Mr Kohn said the data allowed councils to see the top complaint themes in their own area so they could arrange targeted training or review local policies.
He said the OIA had received positive feedback from council chief executives after distributing the first of those snapshots in January.
The hearing also touched on anonymous complaints.
In follow-up material, the OIA said 17 per cent of all complaints in 2024-25 were anonymous.
Overall, 14 per cent of councillors had at least one anonymous complaint lodged against them, while 7 per cent had more than one.
Three councillors each received eight anonymous complaints, the highest number recorded in that period.
The March 4 hearing formed part of parliament’s oversight of the OIA, which investigates and assesses complaints about councillor conduct across Queensland.
Figures from the Office of the Independent Assessor last year show the watchdog received 1008 complaints in 2024-25 — more than six times the 160 it was originally designed to handle — with Redland leading the state on 114 complaints, narrowly ahead of Townsville on 113.
That trend has continued into the current financial year, with Redland again topping the list during the first half of 2025-26.
Complaints fall — but councillor conduct still under scrutiny
COUNCILLOR complaints across Queensland have dropped sharply this financial year, but integrity concerns remain, with hundreds of allegations still being assessed by the state watchdog.
New figures from the Office of the Independent Assessor show 482 complaints were received between July 1, 2025 and February 28, 2026 — a 28 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year.
Despite the overall decline, February recorded an uptick in complaints compared with the previous four months, indicating ongoing tensions around councillor behaviour.
The latest data shows the most common issues raised in February included alleged non-compliance with legislation, claims councillors were not honest or impartial, behaviour towards members of the public and council staff, and misuse of council resources.
Across the financial year to date, 85 per cent of complaints were dismissed or required no further action, suggesting most matters did not meet the threshold for further investigation.
However, the volume and consistency of complaints continues to highlight scrutiny on elected officials, particularly in areas such as behaviour towards the public, interactions between councillors, honesty and impartiality, and conduct on social media.
The Office of the Independent Assessor said it had commenced 54 investigations during the period, while only a small number of complaints were referred back to local governments as suspected conduct breaches.
The watchdog has also issued 30 recommendations for councillors to undertake training or seek guidance, reflecting a continued focus on improving behaviour and capability rather than relying solely on enforcement action.
Acting Independent Assessor Charles Kohn said the office remained committed to ensuring the complaints framework operated efficiently while maintaining confidence in local government.
“The OIA remains committed to ensuring the councillor complaints framework operates efficiently, in a manner that focuses on maintaining the integrity of local governments,” he said.
The report also shows the OIA is processing matters relatively quickly, with complaints assessed in an average of 2.82 working days and investigations taking about 52 working days on average.
At the end of February, 24 investigations remained active, eight complaints were in the legal process and three matters were before the Councillor Conduct Tribunal.
While complaint numbers have fallen compared with last year, the data suggests community expectations around transparency, accountability and councillor behaviour remain firmly in focus.
