As reported yesterday - and previously last month - the Productivity Commission has recommended that the maximum share of federal national disaster relief funding be reduced from 75 per cent to 50 per cent.

It has also proposed raising the benchmark minimum level where a council can apply for funds from $240,000 to $2 million.

It will bring down its final report before Christmas, immediately before Queensland's most intense storm and cyclone season.

Brisbane City Council's unanimous rejection of the recommendations came after a debate over the wording of the motion that councillors would support.

Council's opposition leader Milton Dick originally moved that Brisbane City Council reject the "Abbott Government's" Productivity Commission's recommendations to reduce the federal funding share.

After raising the issue, Cr Dick condemned Council's administration for being "silent as a lamb" and not raising the unpopular changes to disaster relief funding during question time.

"We've had the lectures about Christmas lights, about awards, but this is core Council business and this is what they should be deciding," he said.

Cr Dick described the proposals as "cost shifting" that would force local Council to pay more for natural disasters.

"It is urgent that this Council today delivers the strongest possible message to the federal governmemnt that we will not support a 'cost shift' onto local government when it comes to natural disaster recovery,"Cr Dick said.

"As we head towards storm season, as we head towards flood season, as we head towards natural disaster season, the people of our city- and indeed our state - deserve to know that if they are hit by natural disasters - we can help them."

Cr Dick said Brisbane City Council must act in a bipartisan way to send a "clear and concise message".

"When it comes to a natural disaster, we won't cop what the federal government has planned."

Brisbane City Council had a $400 million natural disaster relief bill after the January 2011 floods and many projects were delayed for almost two years.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk objected to the original wording of Cr Dick's motion and moved an amendement taking out the words "Abbott Government," describing it as wrong.

"It's petty and it's unnecessary," he said.

Cr Quirk said the Productivity Commission was an independent research authority, not an arm of government.

However Cr Nicole Johnston pointed out that the Productivity Commission's study into natural disaster funding was requested by Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey.

The report's terms of reference contains this phrase.

"I, Joseph Benedict Hockey, Treasurer, pursuant to Parts 2 and 3 of the Productivity"Commission Act 1998, hereby request that the Productivity Commission (the Commission) undertake an inquiry into the efficacy of current national natural disaster funding arrangements. The inquiry should take into account the priority of effective mitigation to reduce the impact of disasters on communities."

However Cr Dick eventually agreed for the words "Abbott Government" to be removed from the motion in order to get a unanimous vote rejecting the recommendations from all councillors.

Cr Quirk said Brisbane City Council lodged a submission in June 2014 and had made their objections public in October 2014.

"So Cr Dick is a month late," he said.

Cr Quirk agreed the proposal to reduce the federal funding share from 75 per cent to 50 per cent "would be too great a burden - not only on local governments, but on state governments as well".

He said the proposal - where there would be no federal government payout unless there was a  minimum of two million dollars damage - would also hurt smaller councils as well.

"The actual amount of an event rises from a couple of hundred thousand dollars as it stands today through to two million dollars," he said.

"Now that will affect smaller councils in Queensland particularly badly as well."

"Having a benchmark of two million dollars as a minimum would be a big burden on many of those smaller local goverments."

The vote to reject the Productivity Commissions' recomemndations to change to natural disaster funding guidelines was unanimous, 26 to nil.

The Local Government Association of Queensland also objected to the changes, reporting it would collectively cost Queensland councils - outside Brisbane - up to $9.3 million if was introduced before the 2011 to 2013 spate of floods and cyclones in the state.

In one example the LGAQ reported "a tropical low in Far North Queensland on 3-4 February 2012 caused an estimated $1.9 million in damage across eight remote councils."

"These were mostly Indigenous councils which have no rates base to support their revenue."