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2024 Ipswich City Council election

← 2020 16 March 2024 2028 →

Mayor

First party Second party Third party   IND IND TSI Candidate Teresa Harding David Martin Sheila Ireland Party Ind. LNP Independent Team Sheila Popular vote 40,026 23,037 14,411 Percentage 41.11% 23.66% 14.80% Swing 41.11 23.66 8.07 TCP 57.73% 42.27% TCP swing 5.25 5.25

Mayor before election Teresa Harding Independent LNP Elected mayor Teresa Harding Independent LNP

Councillors

All 9 members on the City Council (including the Mayor) 5 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Independent Labor N/A 37.07 4 +2 Independent N/A 19.30 1 0 Your Voice Of Experience Paul Tully 12.13 2 0 Better Brighter Ipswich Marnie Doyle Andrew Fechner 10.50 1 −1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 2024 Ipswich City Council election was held on 16 March 2024 to elect a mayor and eight councillors to the City of Ipswich. The election was held as part of the statewide local elections in Queensland, Australia.

Teresa Harding was re-elected mayor with 57.73% of the vote after preferences, a swing of 5.25% against her.

Background

At the 2020 election, Teresa Harding was elected mayor, defeating six other candidates. She was the first non-Labor Party aligned Ipswich mayor in 50 years.

Four independents, two Independent Labor candidates and two candidates on the "Your Voice Of Experience" ticket were also elected as councillors.

Division 3 councillor Marnie Doyle joined the Labor Party in March 2023.

Electoral system

Prior to 2020, Ipswich City Council was composed of a directly elected mayor and 10 single-member wards (or divisions), both using optional preferential voting.

In July 2019, it was announced that the 10 single-member wards would be replaced by four two-member wards, reducing the total amount of councillors to eight. Preferential voting was removed and replaced by plurality block voting (also referred to as first-past-the-post by the Electoral Commission), where voters are only required to mark the same amount of candidates as there are positions to be elected − in the case of Ipswich, two candidates.

Optional preferential voting is used for the mayoral election.

Candidates

In April 2023, former councillor David Martin stated he would again run for mayor after his unsuccessful campaign in 2020.

Division 1 councillor Sheila Ireland announced in December 2023 that she would contest the mayoralty and form Team Sheila Ireland.

Marnie Doyle and Andrew Fechner, the two Division 3 councillors, formed the "Better Brighter Ipswich" ticket in early 2024. Former mayor Andrew Antoniolli, who won the 2017 by-election before the council was dismissed in 2018, also contested Division 3 as an independent, having previously been a Labor member.

On 26 January 2024, Ipswich West MP Jim Madden resigned from the Queensland state parliament to contest Division 4. This triggered a by-election in his seat, held on the same day as the local elections.

Results

Mayor

Councillors

2024 Queensland local elections: Ipswich

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independent Labor		83,359	37.07	−3.34	4	2
	Independent		43,406	19.30	+2.81	1
	Your Voice of Experience		27,288	12.13	−8.37	2
	Better Brighter Ipswich		23,613	10.50	+10.50	1	1
	Working For Our Community		21,621	9.61	+9.61	0
	Greens		15,355	6.83	+6.83	0
	Team Sheila Ireland		10,256	4.56	+4.56	0	1
Formal votes			224,898	100.0
Formal ballots			112,449	89.32	+0.58
Informal ballots			13,450	10.68	−0.58
Total			125,899	100.0		8
Registered voters / turnout			155,753	80.83	+2.87

Division 1

• Incumbent councillor Sheila Ireland (Independent, later Team Sheila Ireland) ran for mayor and therefore did not recontest
• Josh Addison compared with Sheila Ireland at the 2020 election

Division 2

Division 3

• Incumbent councillors Marnie Doyle and Andrew Fechner (both independents) formed Better Brighter Ipswich in 2024

Division 4

• Incumbent councillor Kate Kunzelmann (Independent Labor) did not recontest

References

1. "2024 local government elections". Electoral Commission of Queensland. 22 March 2024.
2. "New Council reflects modern community". Local Ipswich News. 8 April 2024.
3. "First non-Labor-aligned mayor in 50 years likely in Ipswich". Brisbane Times. 29 March 2020.
4. "Veteran ex-councillor back with a new team". The Courier Mail. 3 March 2020.
5. "MARNIE LOUISE DOYLE". Electoral Commission of Queensland. 16 March 2024.
6. ^ "How Ipswich will be divided after next council election". Brisbane Times. 11 July 2019.
7. "First-past-the-post voting". Electoral Commission of Queensland. 9 December 2019.
8. "Qld Local Government". ABC News.
9. "Martin bids to become mayor". Local Ipswich News. 18 April 2023.
10. "Sheila runs for mayor". The Ipswich Tribune. 20 December 2023.
11. "Ipswich City Council election mayoral, division candidates, policies". The Courier Mail. 15 March 2024.
12. "Former mayor eyes council return". Local Ipswich News. 1 February 2024.
13. Johnson, Hayden (27 January 2024). "Labor MP Jim Madden resigns to run for Ipswich City Council". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane: News Corp Australia. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
14. "Ipswich City Division 1 Councillor". Electoral Commission of Queensland.
15. "Ipswich City Division 2 Councillor". Electoral Commission of Queensland.
16. "Ipswich City Division 3 Councillor". Electoral Commission of Queensland.
17. "Ipswich City Division 4 Councillor". Electoral Commission of Queensland.
18. "Kunzelmann quits". Local Ipswich News. 7 December 2023.

• Ipswich City Council elections
• 2024 elections in Australia
• 2024 Queensland local elections
• March 2024 events in Australia