Division 11 · City of Moreton Bay
Division 11 Scorecard
Cr Ellie Smith published her own report card in August 2026. I checked it line by line against 23 sets of official General Meeting minutes. Every claim below says where it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
Every council meeting with published minutes since she was sworn in, budget special included. Minutes for the 18th (29 Jul 2026) are not published yet.
Zero mentions in 23 sets of minutes. The council committee page lists no such committee. Her timeline: EOIs late 2026, seated 2027.
She promised a report every 6 months. The first landed at 11 months. The next is flagged for early 2027.
Her own report card rates all 8 priorities green on advocacy but only 2 green on delivered outcome. My check agrees with that split.
The bottom line
My independent readShe turns up, and the minutes prove it. Present at all 17 council meetings with published minutes since she was sworn in. She gave her first speech at the 29 Oct 2025 meeting and the Acknowledgement of Country at the 12 Jun 2026 budget special. That part of the promise, being present and visible, is delivered and checkable.
The two most checkable commitments are behind. The youth advisory committee, the one campaign promise that was cleanly testable, has not appeared as a formal item in any of 23 meetings, and by her own timeline will not exist until 2027, the back half of a term that ends in March 2028. The promised 6 monthly report card slipped on its first cycle: 11 months instead of 6.
The vote transparency promise is only partly checkable, and that is worth to understand. Queensland council minutes record unanimous motions as mover, seconder and result only. When a vote divides, the minutes DO name who voted which way. Her record shows six divided votes so far, listed below, and those are the ones anyone can check her explanations against.
Credit where the paperwork supports it. Two real appointments in her first month, Portfolio Councillor for Environment and the Old Petrie Town Taskforce, confirmed in the 12 Nov 2025 minutes and absent from her own pages. On the flip side, the Youngs Crossing Road and Oakey Flat Road intersection she lists under congestion wins is a $10.1m federal project that was committed before the byelection.
Her ratings vs my check, all 8 priority areas
Her ratings from her own report cardThe advocacy and outcome ratings below are hers, taken from her August 2026 report card. The last column is what I found when I went looking for each one in the official record.
| Priority area | Her advocacy | Her outcome | My check | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listening & Communication | Green | Green | Confirmed Full attendance record, first speech, regular community appearances. This one holds up. | GM minutes 629–645 |
| Congestion Busting Infrastructure | Green | Orange | Attribution unclear The Youngs Crossing Rd and Oakey Flat Rd intersection is a $10.1m federal Housing Support Program project committed before she was elected. | Federal funding announcement, her report card |
| Active & Public Transport | Green | Orange | Not yet delivered Advocacy claims only. No delivered outcome appears in the minutes. | GM minutes, her report card |
| Environmental Protection | Green | Orange | Platform, not outcome She holds the Environment portfolio, a real position to deliver from. She also cast the sole vote against the SEQ residual waste agreement, a recorded stance. | GM 630 Item 12.2.2, GM 633 |
| Affordable Housing | Green | Orange | Not yet delivered Nothing checkable in the minutes so far. | GM minutes, her report card |
| Local Jobs & Opportunities | Green | Orange | Not yet delivered Nothing checkable in the minutes so far. | GM minutes, her report card |
| Community Events, Facilities & Resilience | Green | Green | Confirmed Independently visible presence, including the 19 Dec 2025 rural fire training attendance noted in the record. | GM minutes, community record |
| Waste & Resource Recovery | Green | Orange | Stance recorded, outcome pending Her sole vote against the SEQ residual waste agreement is on the record. Where that lands is still open. | GM 633 minutes |
Attendance and voting record
From the confirmed minutesSince she was sworn in there have been 18 council meetings. Minutes are published for 17 of them and she attended all 17, from the 29 Oct 2025 General Meeting through the 15 Jul 2026 one, the 12 Jun 2026 budget special included. Minutes for the 29 Jul 2026 meeting are not published yet, so that one stays unverified.
One wrinkle I found: the attendance list in the 12 Nov 2025 minutes omits her name, yet the same document records her seconding motions, receiving appointments and voting. I count her as present and flag it as a clerical slip in the official minutes.
How council votes get recorded, because it matters for her transparency promise. A unanimous motion is minuted as mover, seconder and result only, for example CARRIED 11/0, with no names. When a vote divides, the minutes name every councillor on each side, and an abstention is recorded as a vote against under section 254E(c) of the Local Government Regulation 2012. So "explain every vote" can only be tested against the divided ones. There are six on her record:
| Meeting | Item | Result | Her vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| GM 630, 12 Nov 2025 | Sandstone Point 67 unit Multiple Dwelling development application | LOST 3/9 | Among the 9 against |
| GM 631, 26 Nov 2025 | Brendale Utility Installation development application | CARRIED 7/4 | Among the 4 against |
| GM 631, 26 Nov 2025 | Disposal of land zoned Recreation and Open Space | CARRIED 10/1 | Sole vote against |
| GM 633, 28 Jan 2026 | Naming of the Don Gailer Building | CARRIED 12/1 | Abstained, counted against under s254E(c) |
| GM 633, 28 Jan 2026 | Caboolture service station development application, 411–449 Bribie Island Rd | CARRIED 10/3 | Among the 3 against |
| GM 633, 28 Jan 2026 | Council of Mayors SEQ residual waste agreement | CARRIED 12/1 | Sole vote against, as Environment portfolio councillor |
General Meeting minutes, City of Moreton Bay, October 2025 to July 2026. Each packet contains the confirmed minutes of the previous meeting, which is where attendance and divided votes are recorded.
The six findings in detail
Each with its sourceYouth advisory committee Not delivered
Her most testable campaign promise. Zero mentions in 23 sets of minutes, and the council's own advisory committee page lists only the Audit Committee. Her timeline puts expressions of interest in late 2026 and a seated committee in 2027, the back half of the term.
All 23 GM minutes searched; council committees page checked 13 Aug 2026; her timeline from her report card.
The 6 monthly report card Slipped
She promised to report back every six months. The first report card arrived in August 2026, 11 months after the byelection, and flags the next for early 2027. A true 6 monthly cadence would have produced two reports by now.
Her priorities page and report card, both August 2026 and the only editions published.
Explain every vote Partly checkable
Unanimous votes are not itemised in Queensland council minutes, so most of her votes leave no individual trace. The six divided votes above are the checkable set. Whether she has explained those six publicly is something readers can test against her own channels.
GM minutes vote records; s254E(c) Local Government Regulation 2012 (Qld) for how abstentions are counted.
Portfolio appointments Confirmed
Appointed Portfolio Councillor for Environment and to the Old Petrie Town Taskforce in her first month. Neither appointment appears on her own pages, which undersells a genuine platform. The Audit Committee seat she was also considered for went to Cr Jim Moloney.
GM 630 minutes, 12 Nov 2025, Item 12.2.2.
Congestion credit Attribution unclear
Her report card lists the Youngs Crossing Road and Oakey Flat Road intersection upgrade among congestion wins. It is a $10.1m project under the federal Housing Support Program, funded and scheduled before the byelection. Advocating for it is fair, claiming delivery is a stretch.
Federal Housing Support Program funding record; her report card.
Community presence Confirmed
The strongest part of the record. Full attendance at every meeting with published minutes, first speech on the record at GM 629, the Acknowledgement of Country at the budget special, and visible appearances such as the 19 Dec 2025 rural fire training. That part is real delivery, you can point at it.
GM 629–645 minutes; budget special meeting minutes, 12 Jun 2026.
How I built this scorecard
Method, so you can repeat it- Collected the primary sources. All 23 council meeting packets from October 2025 to July 2026, downloaded from the council meetings page, plus her two published report card pages and my own byelection candidates guide.
- Extracted and read the minutes. Each packet contains the confirmed minutes of the previous meeting, which is where attendance lists and divided votes actually live. Attendance was taken from confirmed minutes only, never from agendas.
- Logged every trace of her. Every item naming Cr Smith, Division 11 or Dayboro: appointments, motions moved or seconded, divided votes, speeches and acknowledgements.
- Matched her report card against the record. Each of her 8 priority areas was checked against what the minutes and public project records show. Her own ratings are shown unchanged; my check sits beside them, never on top of them.
- Applied one scoring rule. Green needs a delivered, checkable outcome. Advocacy alone is orange. Not started is red. Attribution matters: a project funded before her election does not count as her delivery.
- Labelled what I could not verify. The 29 Jul 2026 meeting has no published minutes yet, so it is marked unverified rather than assumed. Same rule everywhere: no source, no claim.
Honestly said, this is a first year check on a shortened term, not a verdict on the whole term. She rates her own outcomes orange on 6 of 8 priorities, which is more honest than most political self assessment, and my check largely agrees with her own split. The gaps I flag are cadence, the youth committee, and one attribution.
Check it yourself
All links verified 13 Aug 2026- Her priorities page, August 2026 : the 8 priority areas and her own advocacy and outcome ratings.
- Her report card, August 2026 : the detail behind each rating, including the youth committee timeline and the next report date.
- Council meetings, agendas and minutes : the primary source. Every attendance list, appointment and divided vote cited above lives here.
- Council standing and advisory committees : where a youth advisory committee would be listed once it exists. As of 13 Aug 2026 it lists only the Audit Committee.
- My byelection candidates guide : where I scored her 22 of 25 before the vote. This scorecard is the follow up I said I would do.
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