Forty-four people have put their hand up to stand for Ipswich City Council in the 2020 Local Government Elections.
The city will go to the polls on 28 March to elect a new mayor and eight divisional councillors across four divisions.
Each division will be represented by two councillors.
Of the 44 people who have nominated, seven are contesting the mayoralty with eight candidates in Division 1.
There are 11 candidates in Division 2, a total of 12 in Division 3 and six standing for election in Division 4.
The list of candidates is as follows: (Note: Names have been ordered in line with the ballot draw conducted by the Electoral Commission of Queensland.)
Mayor
Teresa Harding
Ursula Monsiegneur
Pat Walsh
Mark Williams
David Martin
Karakan Karoly Kochardy
Chris Smith
Division 1
Will Jankovic
Simon Ingram
Sheila Ireland
Jacob Madsen
Jim Thompson
Conny Turni
Kendal Newman
Pye Augustine
Division 2
Brad Hunt
Paul Tully
Steven Purcell
Luise Manning
Nicole Jonic
Paul Modra
Sirle Adamson
Anthony Bull
Sarah Knopke
James Pinnell
Andrea Dunn
Division 3
Alyson Lewis
Andrew Fechner
Jim Dodrill
David Box
Marnie Doyle
Toni Gibbs
Darren Close
Kevin Le Grice
Jacinta Bull
Bill Heck
Rochelle Caloon
Drew Pickwick
Division 4
Gary Duffy
Susan Dunne
Kate Kunzelmann
Brian Scott
Shane Blake
Russell Milligan
Which division are you in?
New divisions for Ipswich take effect with the 2020 Local Government Elections.
Voters on 28 March will be asked to elect a mayor and two councillors for their division to represent them on Ipswich City Council.
Here are the maps of each division.
Division 1
If you’re having trouble viewing this map, it can be downloaded here.
Division 2
If you’re having trouble viewing this map, it can be downloaded here.
Division 3
If you’re having trouble viewing this map, it can be downloaded here.
Division 4
If you’re having trouble viewing this map, it can be downloaded here.
All relevant information about the 2020 Local Government Elections is available at www.ecq.qld.gov.au
Would it be possible to have brief interviews with all of the mayoral candidates published before the election such that voters can get an idea of what each person has to offer?
Hi Christine. Thanks for your comment. We won’t be publishing any brief interviews with candidates as Ipswich City Council is in caretaker mode and the Local Government Act does not allow for that information to be published by council.
The relevant part of the legislation is as follows:
90D Prohibition on election material in caretaker period
(1) A local government or a controlled entity of a local government must not, during a caretaker period for the local government, publish or distribute election material.
(2) Election material is anything able to, or intended to—
(a) influence an elector about voting at an election; or
(b) affect the result of an election.
How can anyone vote if we are not allowed to know what we are voting for. This is a lucky dip, with nothing to go by. All Victorian councils publish policy statements. It’s time for this ridiculous law to be overturned to allow the electorate to vote intelligently.
I couldn’t agree more it’s like a pig in a poke,how can anyone vote intelligently when we have no idea what thay have to offer the comunity
I agree with Wendy Dayus, I dont know anything about candidates and what they are representing. How can I know about the candidates ? Is there any other portal where I can find about the candidates?
Wholeheartedly agree. I was lucky to meet one of the candidates at the Springfield station and got to ask some questions. But apart from that I’ve no idea about any of the other candidates. Lets try to change this draconian policy for the future.
Where do we get more info on the proposed councillors CV and or background
That was the problem in the last mayoral election when you know nothing about the candidates. If you don’t buy the Ipswich Times, (who seemed to have stories on each candidate but are only available online to subscribers), the only place I could find out anything about the candidates was on their Facebook pages. There was also some group on Facebook that did short interviews with most of the candidates. It makes it very difficult to make an informed choice when the candidates are ostensibly independent. In a Federal or State election most people will select their candidate based on party lines.
It would be good to know a bit about candidates as I wouldn’t know have a clue what they stand for, what direction they intend to take the Greater Ipswich community or if they have any affiliation to a political party.
I see from an earlier response that this is not permitted under Section 90D of the Local Government Act.
I feel I can not entrust my vote to anybody that I know nothing about and that includes those wishing to be Mayor. After reading the names of the candidates seeking election and to be paid from my rates, there is only one (1) name that I am familiar with and he has been on Council for a very long time.
So… if you do not use Facebook or subscribe to any of the papers which use paywalls you cannot find out any information about the candidates? This is madness!
How the can a voter make an informed choice in this extremely important reset of the Ipswich City Council?
Totally agree with you, Mark…these candidates are Phantoms….I wanted to ask questions such as ….”Are we getting dump vouchers like all the other councils give their ratepayers?”……..”Are you dedicated to stopping yearly rate rises and instil a cost saving practice into the new council so the “cash cow” ratepayers aren’t slugged every year?”……..unfortunately this will not happen as the candidates are hiding….
Totally agree with your thoughts mate , council rates are ridiculously high in Ipswich region compared to other councils, I don’t know why residents don’t come forward to raise this issue infront of local bodies, y we have been paying so high rates , such a shame 😔
Hear here!
I also am at a loss as who to vote for both for my division and also a Mayor. How can we know what their qualifications are and how they intend To bring Ipswich forward. I’d like to remain in administration mode as I’ve seen more done in this period than ever before. I visited Springfield in the evening last week. Seems we would be better served to make that the centre of Ipswich. They have more facilities and better infrastructure. The centre of our city is having a revamp but i don’t really see it returning to a vibrant ‘city’ outside of working hours. I watched the Division 4 forum and wasn’t impressed with any of the candidates that I am compelled to vote for. None of them gave a definitive reason or clear understanding of what they could do except comply with legislative requirements. When asked about the Arts seems some of the candidates need to do more research. So disappointing.
Ipswich has unfortunately became the dumping ground for the rest of the country. Nobody seems to be able to do anything about it. My problem is, where has all the money gone from these dumps,? Ipswich city is looking like a run down shanty town and the suburbs get nothing. I don’t really want to vote for any one of these people. Remember when politicians used to come round campaigning. They can’t even be bothered to do that anymore. The most they do is get someone to stand at a set of traffic lights waving a board at cars. Well I can’t be bothered either so I will go to the polling booth and use the eenie meenie minie mo method. That’s all they deserve.
That’s understandable but pretty scary John Better vote informal
Springfield is a suburb of Ipswich City and will and should stay that way. In ten years time it will be old and shabby like all new estates built around how many houses can you put on a small block of land.
I totally agree with Mark Muller. There needs to be one location where the policies, CV and background of all candidates needs to be located so voters don’t need to search around trying to find it. How on earth can we make informed decisions when we have to flick through Facebook pages or get only half of the information (and biased information at that) from a newspaper?
Definitely agree!!
Can somebody PLEASE organise a way of distributing information on candidates? If a word limit was given, can’t all candidates put together a brief statement about background and policy direction? Surely a centralized way of publishing this information will give a fairer result than one based on how much money a candidate spends on advertising.
This really needs to be published widely, across a range of media. It is ridiculous making voters do all this research individually, and it is equally ridiculous having us basically decide who to vote for on the basis of their ‘photo on a stick’.
Really disappointed in the lack of information on candidates. I have been searching on line and can’t find much of any use. However I certainly won’t be voting on party lines. I don’t want my local council to save the world. I don’t care what my local council thinks of, climate change, gay marriage, or gender diversity. I want a local council to govern for the locals. Keep to the basics, roads rates and rubbish, and look after things at a local level, parks, gardens, planning etc. Just keep it real, and don’t go off on a whole bunch minority issues, and govern for the majority first.
Cheers all, and good luck too Ipswich.
Very disappointing not having information to vote on councilors and mayor of Ipswich unless you subscribe to QT and access facebook. I can’t even watch the Division 3 forum. Ipswich people are supposed to vote in the next couple of weeks, makes it extremely difficult when we can’t access anything to help with our decision. Can someone in council please make this available so people in Ipswich can make a decision moving forward. As usual so frustrated with the lack of information being provided, especially at this time!! Why bother with council …. they seem useless..
Disgruntled Ipswich Resident
I cannot believe we are not able to access any information about any of the candidates for divisions or mayor. I am not interested in subscribing/buying the QT and have seen no other info anywhere, yet we are supposed to vote in a few weeks time.
Ridiculous
Obviously not the only one to feel this way! Please post links to any free information that anyone finds!
Here’s an idea. Why not get our highly paid state government to change:
Local Government Act does not allow for that information to be published by council.
The relevant part of the legislation is as follows:
90D Prohibition on election material in caretaker period
(1) A local government or a controlled entity of a local government must not, during a caretaker period for the local government, publish or distribute election material.
(2) Election material is anything able to, or intended to—
(a) influence an elector about voting at an election; or
(b) affect the result of an election.
And provide some basic DEMOCRACY.
I totally agree with all comments so far. The lack of information re candidates so far is appalling. From what I have so far been able to find out about intended candidates I am unable to pick a Mayor , let alone 2 division Councillors.Council is supposed to take care of Roads, Rates & Rubbish. My Road is Cunningham Highway, a Federal road which is a mess & highly dangerous & I have been allotted a number which is no where near my property. I sure enough get rates, plenty to pay & nothing for it. Rubbish is another problem, I put it out & it is not picked up, sometimes for weeks. That is certainly rubbish Looks like the old donkey will get the vote.
Seriously, if you don’t vote you get fined, if you do vote you may as well just pick a nice name, I don’t buy the QT and have no idea of any of our candidates backgrounds, with all the problems Ipswich has had with some of our councillors in the past you’d think there would be some way to let the people know and be able to make informed decisions. Seems the 90D Prohibition is a convenient way to keep us, the voters of Ipswich, totally in the dark.
Actually not true. You don’t have to vote, you just have to get your name crossed off. You can use the ballot paper however you want. Given the shortage of toilet paper, that might be a better use.
Where is the transparency on candidates? Where are their CV’s and synopsis of abilities, experience, policy making attributes and all the other vital elements needed for the positions of mayor and/or councillor. Are not we the voters entitled to know who it is that we are, in effect, hiring to look after the administration and running of an electoral region? A profile of each candidate should be available to every voting member of the electorate, without charge and easily accessible. We need to know who we are voting for!
Who are these candidates i.e. mayor and council candidates? The actual signs around the areas do not indicate any reference to candidates allegiance to parties until you dig deeper and find out they are green, labour or conservative. Stating in some instances that they are independent? What are these rules that decide not to profile the candidates? We need to know who and why these people put up their hand. Its our money in the first instance. Give us something so we can decide who we prefer.
I had one candidate knock on my door doing the rounds of the Division. This is the first one I’ve seen since John Nugent was mayor!
The rest of the candidates for mayor or councilor are an unknown quantity because of the archaic voting laws.
No wonder we elect shady council members?
In what sort of a democracy do you force people to vote for a local government election when they’re is NO information regarding all the candidates in one ready place so we can make a slightly informed choice?
I have spoken to two candidates from my division at a Shopping Centre table and neither of them knew anything about the area at all!
There are none of the usual leaflets and I refuse to pay $28/month for QT access on line.
It’s actually a farce.
If someone has a friend at one of the TV stations, get them to suggest to their news team how much of a scandal/scam this is for voters to not know who they are voting for in a so called “democratic country”. Maybe we can get some of our own city publicity, this may be the only way to push for change of rules. This will be the biggest donkey vote election Ipswich has ever seen, such a shame.
In Ipswich we pay absolutely the most incredible rates for a severe lack of service, I know people who have moved just to get away from the rates and lack of service. We will be the next ones. So fed up with being forgotten or excuses made. HOW do voters make informed choices if the candidates do not bother to tell us who they are, and are not allowed to get the word out? WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH. Here is a question…..are we allowed to write “donkey” on the bottom of the our vote and vote for the donkey? It would clearly have the best chance of winning and no one one would know the difference, our rates go up regardless. If anyone finds a candidate that bothers to get some creds out there, please post it!
Absolutely agree with all the people complaining about the difficulty finding information on candidates. It’s a shambles. I spent hours on Google and Facebook and couldn’t find anything about some of the candidates at all. Some had websites and some had Facebook pages, but getting a good picture of where most of them stand is torture.
Ipswich Ratepayers and Residents Association on Facebook had links to some good info on some of the candidates, but otherwise I just searched Google for the candidate’s name plus “policies ipswich qld council elections” or variations of that until I found something or nothing. There must be a better way for people who can’t afford online subscriptions to all the newspapers.
I thought it was just me! Well I suppose with no information, I’m going to vote by gut instinct as I have an amazing little radar on board which extremely rarely lets me down!
Due to lack of candidate information, I am not going to risk my health by going to a polling station to vote for a name that i know nothing about. No wonder Government in this country is made up of novices who all want fame without providing a service
If every voter was to boycott the upcoming election, the current ICC administrator would most likely have to continue doing what they have been since they were appointed. We as rate payers have rights too and why would anyone vote for a Councillor let alone a Mayor they know nothing about!!
I have friends that live in the Brisbane council area and their rates are only $350 a quarter based on a land value of $400K. I pay $589 a quarter based on a land value of $275K. I moved here because it was more affordable to buy a house in Division 2 than closer to the city. One of the costs I considered was rates, but couldn’t find any information on this via Ipswich council website. If people knew how much they where going to add onto the total cost of buying a house in Ipswich area they would buy elsewhere, such as Jimboomba.
The fault of all this confusion lies with the QLD State Government who have sacked 2 City Councils and have not had the forsite (read wisdom) to change legislation or to remove the legislation preventing us from receiving any information regarding the Mayoral & Councillor Candidates.
We can blame the Prime Minister for Bush Fire and Corona Virus lack of forsite and assistance but I know exactly where the confusion lies for all the residents face at the Ipswich polling booths.
Solution: Cancel local election for Ipswich City Council, change the legislation and keep the administrator on. He knows what he is doing.
It must be pointed out that there is NO compulsory voting, the only compulsion is to have your name recorded as having been there what you do with the ballot paper or write on the ballot is entirely up to the voter you could leave it blank as this and all other voting in this country is a secret ballot.
This is true we can vote for a donkey, however, that can also affect the outcome, in favour of the influential and deceitful flops like ipswich has seen before.
For example:
If a particular mayoral candidate or councillor has a large following and or minions that have more knowledge or a biased opinion of the candidate and even those that can afford subscriptions all vote and those that are left in the dark don’t vote then it will obviously be a favourable result for the candidates that know people that know people etc.
They all dine together, pray together, play together, have studied or worked together.
If we as the rate paying citizens don’t vote correctly, then the only result will be that those who rub shoulders with one another are elected.
Maybe an independent citizen could call and ask each candidate in their division a series of questions to establish a simple profile and then publish it in our local community Facebook groups or posiibly produce flyers to distribute at shopping centres etc for those that don’t use social media or have no internet access.
An Email to the aged care homes for those that are postal voting.
This would not be a council publication or published by a candidate.
If this was possible what 6 -10 questions would you ask of each candidate?
WHY VOTE if we can’t have the information on the candidates may as well stay in caretaker mode typical bureaucratic garbage.
Could we be in for worse than what we had (from the frying pan to the fire) what are there backgrounds, policies and what they stand for??????.
A real lucky dip. Coronavirus and unknown candidate concerns. Between a rock and a hard place. Paul’s solution is sensible: Cancel local election for Ipswich City Council, change the legislation and keep the administrator on. He knows what he is doing.
I agree with most of the sentiment on this website that it is ludicrous that we are subject to a compulsory registration to vote for Councillors and a mayor that we know nothing about and have in the large part never heard of. I’ve had one flyer in the mail box for mayor. At least one candidate is showing some commitment to this process. Generally most people are keen to have a say, particularly after the recent council debacle. How can we do this effectively when we don’t know who we’re voting for, and more importantly, what they have to say? We might as well play pin the tail on the donkey for all the relevance our voting choice will make!
Where do I find some information on candidates and mayor please before voting also can you please tell me how much the fine is for not voting.
What a joke!
I have been looking for weeks to find information to make an informed decision, which I believe is our democratic right in this state and country, but to no avail. One would think with the reputation of our great city soiled, this would be paramount?
Anyone applying for a job in the job market has to submit a resume listing their strengths and experience. These people are applying for a council job and we, the residents, are to be their employer. Where are the resumes they submitted? What referees do they have?
I expect there will be a substantial amount of blank or spoiled votes handed in at this election due to people not being able to get any information regarding candidates. Why would you take the chance of voting in a malicious incompetent when the only informationis hidden behind a paywall or requires a social media account? What kind of joke is the state goverment playing here? Or is their intention to slip in a aquiecent council they can run from Geoge St
No such thing as non-political candidates. Post election the successful candidate will declare party preference and align themselves along party lines. It would help to know the political affiliations of the candidates (even if they vote one way or another).
I have been a Labor voter ‘forever’ and I would certainly take the candidates political persuasion into consideration when I cast my vote.
I am speechless! No wonder there have been such difficult time’s in local councils-there is no accountability!
We are being asked to vote ‘blind’!
Without information on each candidate and the opportunity for them to express their plan for the future of Ipswich to ratepayers, we are essentially engaging in a Lucky Dip operation.
When I started looking for information on candidates I was really annoyed at the total lack of information. Now that I see I am only one of many (and how many others are there who have given up and not even left a comment?) I don’t feel much better. It’s kind of hard to take responsible citizenship seriously when left with only the “eenie meenie” selection option, as mentioned by someone earlier. It will be interesting to see which candidates “win” and even more interesting to see how they step up to the job.
Where do we find information concerning the candidates.
Glad to know that we are not the only ones perplexed about this election. As pensioners we usually get a postal vote, but these are not available. So who do we vote for? “Mo” will get the votes if we all do the “eerie,meenie” thing! To have to expose ourselves to risk of infection just to have our names crossed off the roll, then not be able to vote intelligently is something we never dreamed of! We have been ‘self isolating’ for the past 2 weeks since the beginning of this pestilence, doing what we can to ‘flatten the curve’ Now we are expected to go out and vote! Bible believers have been expecting a ‘time of trouble such as never was’, just before the end of the world. Looks like we have arrived! Time to ask God for guidance, He knows the future!
This is madness and what a waste of our tax paying dollars. our dollars. How can it be LEGAL to be asked to vote for people we know nothing about. Pie in the sky stuff. . What the hell will we get this time???
What kind of people want you to give them control but don’t want you to know about them?
Nobody I’d ever vote for.
Is there a “keep the administrator” option?
Compulsory voting: Blind gamble about candidates and blind gamble with your health. Utter shambles! Govt trying for herd immunity but unwilling to admit it.
I would like to see all councilors have to reside in the electorate they are nominated in and to have no political affiliations.
We don’t need all this political bull being brought down to the local level – there is enough in State and Federal Politics.
Who am I voting for? Lucky dip?
I’m going to see if I can petition the State Government to nullify the results of this election and have a new election after the threat of this pandemic has passed. I would rather have the Administrator running the Council. We are in danger of handing control to a bunch of inexperienced nobodies. The lack of information is unacceptable. Being directed to Facebook pages is not good enough, seeing many older constituents may not even have Facebook. Even one of the candidates doesn’t have Facebook, probably more. The fact that any information that comes up on Google is inaccessible behind paywalls makes me wonder if that behaviour is actually legal. Yes, we can choose to not subscribe if we’re not that interested in the articles, but this is the administration of a huge amount of resources in our area and we shouldn’t be held to ransom when we are just trying to find information to make an informed decision. I thought it was just me, but when I discovered this whole list of people commenting on this article with the exact same grievance I had, I just realised this was totally wrong.
I join the long list of those people who are completely frustrated at the lack of information about candidates.What sort of a democracy is this? How can we vote with any integrity? Expecting people to go to polling booths for voting tomorrow in light of the Covid -19 advice is very ill-considered and unfair. All voting should have been postal or electronic. What a joke this all is!!
Bring your own pencil eh? We should have been told to bring our own dart to throw at board listing the candidates. I just shake my head that it actually breaches legislation (as mentioned above) to actually inform us about each candidate. I’d rather vote for some of the people in this blog. I know more about them than I do any of these Neville Nobodies I am expected to vote for.
With a lack of information about any of the candidates this process is.completely undemocratic. Its like going to a job interview without having to submit a resume. What a disgrace.