12:46p.m. 18th January 2008

| By Kathy Sundstrom

It’s happened in Brisbane, it’s happened in Townsville – and there is every indication it won’t be long before it is happening in a council near you.

While the Labor party announced last week it would not be financially backing any candidates in the March 15 Sunshine Coast regional council election, political experts predict it is simply a matter of time before the major parties start to get involved.

Sunshine Coast University lecturer and local government expert Dr Scott Prasser said the involvement of political parties was “definitely on the cards”.

“It’s happened in a number of regional areas already and we will see increasing political party contests in Queensland local government,” he said.

The big bucks that political parties can bring to campaigns is likely to hinder the election chances of the ordinary mum or dad who has worked at a grassroots level in the community.

Already some candidates, such as Mooloolaba councillor Tom Hulett, have flagged running election campaigns that will run into tens of thousands of dollars.

Local Government Association of Queensland acting executive director Greg Hoffman said the involvement of political parties would be “an impediment to independents and individual candidates”.

The success of candidates who are backed by political parties has been shown in Brisbane.

“In Brisbane, the political parties are the primary protagonists in the local government elections,” Mr Hoffman said.

“Many independents stand (for the council) but none have been successful.”

Dr Prasser said political parties “squeeze out independent candidates, just like at the state and federal level, as the political parties have the resources, the marketing and the brochures”.

The other danger for locals , he said, was that when councils became overtly political the civic spirit was lost.

“The concern is regional issues get taken over by party political agendas,” he said.

“This doesn’t mean when you’ve got independents they aren’t playing party politics, but when they are not affiliated to a party the focus is more on issues in the region.

“Look at Brisbane City Council – the councillors get entangled on what’s happening in the political party agenda instead of the local government agenda.”

Mr Hoffman said the involvement of political parties or strong interest groups could lead to a “change in the traditionally strong relationship between councils and the community”.

Dr Prasser predicted the changes to party politics at a local government level would begin to unfold soon.

“Given the Labor party dominance in Australia at a state and federal level, I would be surprised if they don’t make some move into selected regional areas soon,” he said.

“They’ll look at growth areas like Mackay and the Sunshine Coast and these will be used as springboards for state and federal campaigns

“As there are no Labor seats on the Coast, the Labor party might be saying this is a good long-term strategy.”

The involvement of political parties would not be all doom and gloom.

“On the upside – you tend to get more organised councils,” he said.