The mayor of a major Queensland council has signed a statutory declaration stating Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney dismissed climate change as "a semi-religious belief" during a tense meeting in his office.

On Thursday, Mr Seeney publicly denied he made the remark.

Allan Sutherland, of the Moreton Bay Regional Council north of Brisbane, stated Mr Seeney made the comment during a discussion about the council's regional plan in October. The meeting was also attended by four council officials.

A participant in the meeting confirmed the mayor's version of events to the ABC.

As revealed by the ABC in December, Mr Seeney intervened to have all references to a predicted 0.8-metre sea rise removed from Moreton Bay's regional plan, a move that upset the council and Councillor Sutherland.

Mr Seeney, who is also the state's Planning Minister, responded to the story by defending the intervention, saying he had stepped in "to ensure residents' rights to build and develop their properties were maintained and not restricted by their local council".

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Cr Sutherland told the ABC last night the Deputy Premier made his feelings clear about the matter at the meeting with council representatives.

"At the meeting he said 'I'm not having people's property values devalued by what amounts to a semi-religious belief in climate change'," he said.

"It's unbelievable that the Deputy Premier would come out with this."

During a press conference at an election campaign stop in Townsville, Mr Seeney denied he had described climate change as "a semi-religious belief".

"I did not say that. What I've said to the Mayor of the Moreton Bay Regional Council is that he should stop playing politics with this issue and try and find a resolution that protects the property values of the 7,500 people who have objected to his town plan."

Mr Seeney's office told the ABC his chief of staff was at the October meeting and did not hear the Deputy Premier use the term.

But Cr Sutherland said the council's CEO, deputy CEO, assistant to the CEO, and chief planner were also at the meeting and heard Mr Seeney use the phrase.

"Everybody at council knows about Seeney's comment, it's a joke," he said.

"We scoff about it now and say 'you're not referring to that semi-religious belief are you?'"

The mayor provided the ABC with a statutory declaration stating: "At a meeting held in Brisbane on 14 October, 2014 attended by myself, the Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney and others, the Deputy Premier referred to climate change as, 'a semi-religious belief'".

The website of the Commonwealth Attorney-General warns the penalty for making a false statement in a statutory declaration is a maximum of four years in jail.

"If you lie in a stat dec you'll be eating porridge," Cr Sutherland said, referring to the possible jail term for making a false statement.

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