The City of Brisbane is the Local Government Area (LGA) that has jurisdiction over the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Unlike LGAs in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, where LGAs are generally responsible only for the relatively small Central Business Districts of those cities, the City of Brisbane administers a significant portion of the Brisbane metropolitan area and has a larger population than any other Local Government Area in Australia. The City of Brisbane was the first Australian LGA to reach a population of more the one million.[2] The population of the LGA is roughly equivalent to the populations of Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory combined. The Council administers a budget of over A$3 billion.[3]

The Local Government Area is the combination of the local cities, towns and shires that merged together in 1925. The main offices and Central Library for the Council are at 266 George Street, also known as Brisbane Square. The Brisbane City Hall houses the Council Chamber, the offices of the Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor, meeting and reception rooms and the Museum of Brisbane.
History
Brisbane City

The Queensland state government created the City of Brisbane with a view to uniting the then Brisbane metropolitan area under one planning and governance structure. The City of Brisbane Act 1924 received assent from the Governor on 30 October 1924. On 1 October 1925, 20 local government areas of various sizes were abolished and merged into the new city,[4] namely:

Cities:
Brisbane
South Brisbane

Towns:
Hamilton
Ithaca
Sandgate
Toowong
Windsor
Wynnum

Shires:
Balmoral
Belmont
Coorparoo
Enoggera
Kedron
Moggill
Sherwood
Stephens
Taringa
Tingalpa
Toombul
Yeerongpilly

The Council also assumed responsibility for several quasi-autonomous government authorities, such as the Brisbane Tramways Trust.
[edit] Governance

The City of Brisbane is governed by the Brisbane City Council, the largest local council in Australia. The Brisbane City Council has its power divided between a powerful executive Lord Mayor, a parliamentary-style council of twenty-six councillors representing single-member wards of approximately 23,000 voters, and a Civic Cabinet comprising the Lord Mayor and the chairpersons of the seven standing committees drawn from the membership of Council. The Lord Mayor is the person elected by the largest single electorate in Australia. The seven standing committees of Council are:

Community Services Committee
Environment and Sustainability Committee
Finance Committee
Public Transport Committee
Roads, TransApex and Traffic Committee
Urban Planning and Economic Development Committee
Water and City Businesses Committee

The council also owns three business units which are city-owned enterprises managed on commercial lines:

Brisbane CityWorks
Brisbane Transport
Brisbane Water

Following Local Government elections on 15 March 2008, 10 councillors are members of the Australian Labor Party while 16 councillors and the Lord Mayor are from the Liberal National Party. The current Lord Mayor of Brisbane is Graham Quirk, who replaced civil engineer Campbell Newman in April 2011, when he resigned to enter Queensland State Politics. Graham Quirk belongs to the Liberal National Party. The current Deputy Mayor is Adrian Schrinner. The day-to-day management of Council’s operations is the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer who is currently Colin Jensen.

Elections are held every four years with ballots for the Lord Mayoralty and the individual councillors being held simultaneously. Voting is compulsory for all eligible electors. The election in March 2004 resulted in the unusual situation of a Liberal Lord Mayor co-existing with a Labor majority on Council, resulting in remarkably few conflicts over civic budgets and Council policy. The most recent election in March 2008 saw a swing of 5.5% to the Liberal National Party on the councillor votes, resulting in a Liberal majority on Council with a Liberal Lord Mayor (Lord Mayor Campbell Newman won re-election with 60% of the primary vote).

The Brisbane City Council is incorporated under the City of Brisbane Act 1924, while other local governments in Queensland are governed by the Local Government Act 1993.

Council meetings are held at Level 5, 157 Ann St, Brisbane City[5] every Tuesday at 2pm except during recess and holiday periods. This temporary venue is in use due to the restoration work being performed on the traditional venue Brisbane City Hall.[6] Meetings are generally open to the public.

Brisbane City Council aims to be carbon neutral by 2026 via the reduction of emissions and carbon offsetting.[7]
[edit] Heraldry
Brisbane Coat of Arms

The motto of the City of Brisbane is Meliora sequimur, Latin for We aim for better things. The Council’s corporate slogan is Dedicated to a better Brisbane. The city’s colours are blue and gold. Its corporate logo was introduced in 1982 in preparation for the Commonwealth Games hosted in Brisbane that year. It features a stylised version of Brisbane’s City Hall which opened in 1930. The city’s floral emblem is the (exotic) poinsettia and its faunal emblem is the Graceful Tree Frog.

See also
Flag of Brisbane

[edit] Wards

As of 20 June 2011, the twenty-six wards, their councillors and their party affiliations are:[8]
Ward Party Councillor
Bracken Ridge LNP Amanda Cooper
Central Labor David Hinchliffe
Chandler LNP Adrian Schrinner
Deagon Labor Victoria Newton
Doboy Labor John Campbell
Enoggera LNP Andrew Wines
Hamilton LNP David McLachlan
Holland Park LNP Ian McKenzie
Jamboree LNP Matthew Bourke
Karawatha Labor Gail MacPherson
MacGregor LNP Steven Huang
Marchant LNP Fiona King
McDowall LNP Norm Wyndham
Moorooka Labor Steve Griffiths
Morningside Labor Shayne Sutton
Northgate Labor Kim Flesser
Parkinson LNP Angela Owen-Taylor
Pullenvale LNP Margaret de Wit
Richlands Labor Milton Dick
Tennyson LNP/Independent Nicole Johnston
The Gabba Labor Helen Abrahams
The Gap LNP Geraldine Knapp
Toowong LNP Peter Matic
Walter Taylor LNP Julian Simmonds
Wishart LNP Krista Adams
Wynnum Manly Labor Peter Cumming
[edit] Sister cities

The City of Brisbane has seven sister cities.[9] They are:

Japan Kobe, Japan (July 1985)
New Zealand Auckland, New Zealand (August 1988)
China Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China (June 1992)
Indonesia Semarang, Indonesia (January 1993)
Republic of China Kaohsiung, Taiwan (September 1997)
South Korea Daejeon, South Korea (June 2002)
China Chongqing, People’s Republic of China (October 2005)
United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (February 2009)

^1 Direct-controlled municipality of the People’s Republic of China

In 1995, Brisbane City Council officially severed all ties with its sister city, Nice, France, in protest against the Chirac government’s decision to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean.[10] Brisbane does not have any sister city relationship with any North American, South American, African or European city.[11]