Opposition Leader Milton Dick moved an urgent motion at Tuesday's Brisbane City Council meeting calling on all appointments to advisory boards to come before full council for consideration, in the interests of transparency.

Presently either Lord Mayor Graham Quirk alone, or his civic cabinet, make the appointments behind closed doors.

Many of the positions are paid.

The LNP administration used its majority to defeat Cr Dick's motion and Cr Quirk defended the appointment process, saying it had not changed in the nearly 30 years he had been in local government.

However, Cr Dick disputed that claim, saying former Lord Mayor Campbell Newman migrated towards the closed door approach after he was elected in 2008.

His motion called for an independent review to ensure LNP donors were not getting preferential treatment.

"We are seeing a pattern of behaviour across the city and across the state and now across the nation where there is a perception in the community of favouritism," he said.

"These appointments are well paid and none of the decisions come to this council.

"There needs to be transparency in these appointments. There is no doubt that in the public's mind there is jobs for the boys going on."

Cr Quirk initially refused to answer Cr Dick's questions on Tuesday, describing them as "disgraceful" and he won the support of council chair Margaret de Wit, who ruled Cr Dick's comments fell short of "acceptable standards of behaviour".

Later, Cr Quirk said appointments to boards and advisory roles were decided based on the specialist experience the selected  candidate could bring and what was in the best interests of the city.

"The reality is we have a mix of people on our boards," he said. "Yes some of them are donors, but there's also some Labor donors, but the overwhelming majority don't donate at all.

"We live in a democracy and people are entitled to donate to parties if they wish.

"The overwhelming number of appointees on our boards don't donate to any political party."

Cr Quirk said Cr Dick's call for key appointments to come before the full council for debate would result in "character assassination" and would not result in choices being made in the interests of Brisbane.

But he conceded that whatever the party, there had been a long history of party donors from both side of the political divide being appointed to such roles by the administration of the day.

"I suppose that has been a reality but why should people that have donated be excluded if they have got the skills set?" he said.

The Lord Mayor said the debate detracted from the business of running the city.

"Quite frankly, I want the debate in this place to be about what we can do to advance the people of Brisbane," he said.

"Let's have it around the policy issues, ideas for the city.

"That's what I think people want at the end of the day."

Among the LNP donors who hold key council advisory positions are coffee entrepreneur Philip Di Bella, who is a paid director of Brisbane Marketing as well as the chairman of the CBD economic development board.

Former Federal Young Liberals President Gerard Paynter receives nearly $20,000 a year as a member of Brisbane Transport Advisory Board.

Newman confidante Mark Brodie has the most lucrative role of all appointees however, earning $73,500 last year as chairman of the City of Brisbane Investment Corporation, informally known as Brisbane's "future fund".