Ipswich City Council is just days away from being sacked by the Queensland government more than a year after corruption allegations were first levelled against its officials and their associates.
Special laws forcing out elected officials will be introduced by Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe next week after a wideranging investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday foreshadowed the introduction of laws to parliament on Tuesday, saying her government had given the move lengthy consideration.
"I do not take this action lightly," she told reporters.
"This is a very serious matter and one that we have contemplated long and hard about."
To date, 15 people connected to council - including former mayors Paul Pisasale and Andrew Antoniolli and a former chief executive - have been charged with 86 criminal offences.
Over time, the council's culture deteriorated to the point where corruption was no longer recognised, a report released this week by the CCC found.
It shows a "very dominating senior figure" combined with an inner circle of councillors and senior executives and weak policies allowed corruption to occur.
Officials used personal email accounts to get around right-to-information requests from journalists, and staff who raised corruption concerns were bullied and forced out.
The report proposed training all councillors across the state in corruption risks and switching council controlled entities to public to bring them under the CCC's jurisdiction.
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