Hajnal Ban

Ban was first elected as Councillor for Division 4 in the (now defunct) Shire of Beaudesert on 27 March 2004 at the age of 26, when she significantly out-polled her four male opponents.[7] She was the youngest-ever councillor to be elected in the shire and the only barrister. She was elected as an independent and had no previous political party affiliation, but joined the National Party in 2006.

She was chairperson of the Shire's Planning and Development Committee from April 2004 to December 2005, when she was removed from the post, in a move spearheaded by Councillor John Fronis, over her opposition to the State's decision to designate the North McLean Enterprise Precinct in the South East Queensland Regional Plan, which would have placed heavy industry in the middle of her rural-residential division.[8]

In the 2007 federal election, Ban stood as the National Party candidate for the seat of Forde.[9][10] Although she worked hard at her campaign[11] and was credited with achieving a larger than expected swing, Ban only achieved 12.2% of the primary vote.[12] The voter base in the Forde electorate is heavily urban, so it was always unlikely the electorate would have voted for a National Party candidate over its urban conservative sister party, the Liberals.

In July 2007, the Queensland Labor Government announced widespread reform to local government. The major reform was to amalgamate many councils, and Beaudesert was included in the process. Half the Shire was amalgamated with the Shire of Boonah to create the Scenic Rim Region while the other half was amalgamated with Logan City. Ban's entire division was in the area to be amalgamated into Logan City. Her division underwent significant change when it was merged with the neighbouring Division 5 (held by John Fronis, a Labor councillor) to form the new Logan City Division 11. Fronis and Ban subsequently contested the new division at the March 2008 elections, with Ban winning convincingly, even in areas where the Labor vote at state and federal elections had historically been high. Ban achieved 66.06% of the two-candidate-preferred vote to Fronis' 33.94%.[13]

After her election to Logan City Council, Ban was elected chairperson of the Community, Sport and Customer Services Committee, but was removed from the position in May 2009, and replaced by a neighbouring urban-based councillor, Phil Pidgeon, because of her strong and somewhat outspoken advocacy for the amalgamated areas she represents.[14]

In late 2008, Ban formed an alliance with Sean Black, the only other rural-based councillor, and together they advocated strongly for their similar constituencies. Ban and Black married in 2010.

After questions were raised by Queensland’s Adult Guardian about Ban's administration of an elderly man’s estate, the Liberal National Party revoked its endorsement of her as the candidate for the federal division of Wright on 7 June 2010.[15] The LNP claimed the Adult Guardian’s questions were never disclosed in her vetting committee. Ban voluntarily surrendered her power of attorney on 2 July 2010, after which proceedings in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal were ceased.[16]

Ban claimed the LNP disendorsed her pre-selection because men in the LNP hierarchy were never comfortable with a woman being pre-selected in a winnable seat.[17]

Ban originally nominated to run again as councillor for Division 11, but several weeks prior to the election she withdrew from the contest.[18]

Ban is an anti-pokies campaigner and continues to advocate for the reduction in the number of gaming machines within the Logan City local government area.[19] Ban voted in several ballots to remove Deputy Mayor of Logan, Russell Lutton, who is a pro-pokies councillor.[20][21][22][23] Lutton has since fought back criticising Ban.[24][25]