THE Southern Downs Regional Council is pushing for more powers to ban smoking in public places and they have tabled the topic for discussion at the Local Government Association of Queensland conference today.

Southern Downs mayor Peter Blundell, who is at the conference in Cairns, said the issue of smoking in public places was one of five they had taken to the conference.

"It is an issue that we have discussed and with the emphasis on healthy living and healthy communities it is relevant," he said.

Cr Blundell said he would like to see the extra power come in the form of changes to the current legislation.

Councils in Queensland can already ban smoking in outdoor malls and places like bus stops, under the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act.

But Cr Blundell said he would like to see this include other areas in the CBD as well as parks.

The move could also work towards reducing smoking rates and litter in the community.

But it also acknowledged likely cost rises for councils in monitoring and enforcing such bans in more areas.

As well as the smoking debate the Southern Downs Regional Council will team-up with both Bundaberg and the Lockyer Valley councils to ask for clarity on natural disaster funding.

Together they have put forward three key motions relating to disaster funding, day labour immediately after a disaster and the State Government's new emergency management levy.

Southern Downs Regional Council has called for the LGAQ to lobby state and federal governments to allow council workers to get paid for cleaning up immediately after a disaster.

The motion said councils often start the clean-up "knowing full well (they)will not be compensated" under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements.

"Being able to source funding for this interim period will provide a better outcome for the community at a lower community financial cost," it reads.

As Bundaberg continues to recover from the Ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald, the council will call on LGAQ to lobby the State Government to change the new levy. The levy, which comes into effect on January 1 next year, expands the Urban Levy Scheme, to raise funds for the State Government for emergency management.

While councils will collect the money from ratepayers, they will be forced to pass on all the revenue to the State Government.

Budget papers show the State Government expects to reap more than $24 million from the levy this financial year, doubling to $51 million in 2014-15, before rising to $57 million by 2016-17.

But the Bundaberg motion calls for clarity on the new levy, to ensure land owners are only charged on their rateable land, rather than on every individual parcel.

The motion said the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service had clarified it, to say the intention "was to charge 'per parcel' ".

But the State Government itself has not yet publicly clarified how the levy will be imposed, particularly for rural property, where multiple lots often make up a single overall property.

In the Lockyer Valley, where floods ripped new rivers and watercourses in the area, the council has called for disaster funding to help pay the costs of surveyors in reinstating property boundaries.