All political donations should be banned and a funding model established to create a more equitable system, a Queensland developer has told a corruption inquiry in Brisbane.

The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) is holding public hearings into complaints of candidate misconduct and questionable financial dealings at the Gold Coast, Ipswich and Moreton Bay council elections last year.

Two large south-east Queensland property developers have today told the inquiry they made donations to candidates but did not expect to receive special treatment in return.

Robert Sharpless, who has shares in several companies and is also the deputy chairman of the Springfield Land Corporation, said he had regularly donated to many political campaigns but "would love to see" the donations banned.

Mr Sharpless said there was a misconception in the community that people donated for their own personal gain.

He said he made hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to schools, universities, research bodies and charities as well as both sides of politics.

"If you want to really do something about it why wouldn't you ban political donations? he said.

"It would make my life so much easier.

"My view is that there should be some funded model at all levels of government where money is budgeted for, it's dealt with, it's used for the purpose for which it's raised.

"Then people such as property developers and others won't be accused of doing things that supposedly are not in the public interest just because we try to help people who ask for our help."

'Trying to improve Ipswich'

Mr Sharpless told the commission his companies had been trying to improve the Ipswich community for more than two decades.

"We've been there for 25 years trying to change the image of that city and bring development into an area that otherwise had no infrastructure, and you know rebranding the city, lifting its image ... to lift the standard of development in that city," he said.

Mr Sharpless said every one of his donations had been solicited, and he had also made donations to Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale.

"I have a view that he's probably the hardest working Mayor that I've seen in 30 years of watching the behaviours of mayors in different cities."

Moreton Bay developer Robert Comiskey of the Comiskey Group told the Commission his companies also made sizeable donations to political candidates but did not expect favours in return.

"I think at the time we were looking to make some donations to some of the councillors going forward for the upcoming elections to support those who we considered to be more professional councillors that we thought could take the region forward," he said.

"The criteria was really looking at the Moreton Shire when it goes forward and prospers ... it actually supports our businesses and makes our businesses worth more money but they also make more money.

"We decided that we'd seen councils before that have unprofessional or councillors that don't understand what council is, it's a large business, so we looked at councillors that were professional that knew what they were doing."

LGAQ wants tighter control

Queensland Local Government Association (LGAQ) chief executive Greg Hallam told the corruption hearing political parties and unions should be banned from donating to candidates they had not officially endorsed.

"People are happy for you to be a member of a party they will live with that but they expect you to be fiercely independent when you walk into the council chamber, and I think ... breaking any connection in a financial and political support sense from a party to an individual that wasn't endorsed goes to that matter," he said.

Mr Hallam called for widespread reforms including real-time declarations of donations and potential conflicts of interest.

He said last year's election was the "dirtiest" and "most pernicious" he had seen for political mud slinging.