The Queensland Government last night scrambled to fix an extraordinary bungle which resulted in the premature announcement that four mayors and a councillor had been suspended, hours before new laws had been signed off by the Governor.

Logan Mayor Luke Smith, Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli, Doomadgee Mayor Edric Walden and Hope Vale Mayor Greg McLean were all immediately suspended yesterday, which required the Governor's assent.

Logan councillor Stacey McIntosh was also suspended.

However, the office of Mr Hinchliffe wrongly issued a media statement at 4:20pm, based on departmental advice that Governor Paul De Jersey had put his signature to the laws to trigger the suspensions.

The announcement had jumped the gun as assent had not been given at that stage, leading to several hours of swirling confusion and mystery as the Government realised its mistake and rushed to get to the paperwork to Government House, where it was signed off last night.

The stand down powers took effect from 12:00am Monday, meaning once the laws were given assent, the effect would be the same as the pre-emptive announcement and the five would have been retrospectively suspended since then.

The suspensions were able to occur because of laws passed by the Queensland Parliament last week, which result in the automatic suspension of a councillor facing serious charges.

The charges involved are:

Luke Smith: official corruption and perjury

Luke Smith: official corruption and perjury Stacey McIntosh: stealing

Stacey McIntosh: stealing Andrew Antoniolli: fraud

Andrew Antoniolli: fraud Edric Walden: misconduct in public office and forgery

Edric Walden: misconduct in public office and forgery Greg McLean: fraud

But the State Opposition has seized on the confusion to launch a new attack on Mr Hinchliffe, who returned to the ministry after stepping aside from Cabinet last year as Transport Minister during the Queensland Rail timetable debacle.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington called it a "frightening" bungle.

"To think that a Minister can send out a press release on such a serious issue and then for it to be alleged later on that it hasn't even had royal assent, I mean this is a complete failure of Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government," she said.

Logan Mayor: 'I don't know what suspension means'

Cr Smith defied repeated calls for him to stand down as Logan mayor prior to his suspension and vowed to defend the charges laid against him.

He was charged after a lengthy investigation by the CCC as part of Operation Belcarra, which probed the conduct of candidates during the 2016 local government elections.

Cr Smith said the Minister had sent him an official notification of his suspension on Tuesday morning, but it had little detail.

"Still there is no specifics around what that means, I don't know what I am allowed to do, what I'm not allowed to do, what that suspension actually entails," he said.

"We knew the bill was coming, we don't know the specifics around the bill — I don't know what being suspended actually means."

Luke Smith showed the media his letter from the Minister confirming his suspension. ( ABC News: Josh Bavas )

"I still don't understand what the Minister's expecting of me when he says I've been suspended. Am I allowed in the [Logan council] building, am I allowed to talk to staff?

"There's no understanding of that or even what the remuneration entails."

But Logan City Council took a different tone in its statement on the matter on Tuesday.

"Logan City Council accepts the Local Government Minister's legislation to strengthen laws that reinforce integrity and improve transparency and accountability in local government," the statement said.

"The laws will also provide greater ministerial powers to stand aside mayors and councillors charged with serious integrity offences.

"Council agrees that the community deserves to have confidence in its elected members."

Deadline looms for Ipswich council

The amendments to the local government laws also give the minister power to sack councils if it is in the public interest.

The focus will now shift to whether Mr Hinchliffe uses this to sack the entire Ipswich Council, having last issued councillors a 21-day show cause notice to prove why they should not be dismissed.

The councillors must make their submission by this Thursday.

Cr Antoniolli had already stood aside from his position at Ipswich prior to Monday's announcement of the suspensions.

His predecessor, Paul Pisasale, is also facing a range of offences including corruption.

In total, the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) has made more than a dozen arrests during its investigation of the council.