Division 2 councillor Peter Flannery declared a $3677 gift from the Moreton Futures Trust, which came under CCC scrutiny on Thursday, as part of his Electoral Commission of Queensland disclosure form.

That gift, Cr Flannery said, was in the form of a how-to-vote card that he shared with the MBT's main beneficiary, Cr Sutherland.

Cr Flannery said he never saw an invoice for the printing costs from which he benefited, but rather was given a handwritten note by Cr Sutherland.

The CCC has previously heard that the Moreton Futures Trust was funded largely by developers.

Counsel assisting the CCC Glen Rice, QC, pointed out to Cr Flannery that he had been involved in the approval of a subdivision at 46 Morgan Road, Burpengary, which divided a single block into 49.

Impact Homes, the proponent of the subdivision, donated $3000 to the Moreton Futures Trust.

Cr Flannery moved the motion to approve the subdivision, which was seconded by councillor Julie Greer.

Cr Greer's electoral disclosure form showed she another beneficiary of Moreton Futures Trust to the tune of $2488.35 - the largest single contributor to her 2016 campaign.

Cr Flannery said he saw no conflict of interest arising from the development application and, at no point, did his mind turn to declaring such a conflict.

"If you knew that a donor had given money to a trust for the purpose of being distributed to candidates such as yourself, does that not give you pause if you are dealing with a development application from that developer?" Mr Rice asked Cr Flannery.

Cr Flannery: "You'd consider it and make your own independent decision on whether you would declare an interest and leave the room or declare an interest and stay in the room."

Mr Rice: "Can I suggest to you that the intervention of a trust in that circumstance is really neither here or there, because the chain of money is still obviously flowing back to you and other candidates who benefit from the trust?"

Cr Flannery said he was "aware there's a public perception of a conflict of interest" but that was mitigated by the involvement of a trust.

"The money wasn't given directly to me, if it was given to me then yes, it's a direct conflict of interest," he said.

"But it was given to the trust and who knows what's been given ... what portion of that particular business's funding has gone to that candidate."

Cr Flannery said he was acting on the advice of Joan Sheldon, the Local Government Association of Queensland's ethics adviser and a former leader of the Queensland Liberal Party, who addressed councillors at a conference.

"Joan Sheldon got up and said to the councillors that if you're going to receive donations from developers or businesses or whoever, then it's best to set up a trust, an independent trust," he said.

That prompted Mr Rice to ask what benefit there was for Cr Flannery "in terms of transparency".

"Once the trust return's disclosed to the public, everyone can see who the names are and deduce what kind of business the donors are in and then the money is channelled from the trust to the candidates, such as yourself," he said.

"It's apparent through that chain of money what the source (of the money) is."

Cr Flannery said the advantage was that the donations were "at arm's reach" from the councillors, as donations were decided by the trust and not the donors themselves.

After his appearance, Cr Flannery told reporters outside the CCC's Fortitude Valley headquarters all payments were "legal and above board".

Cr Sutherland was due to appear before the hearing on Friday afternoon.

Earlier, federal Labor frontbencher Shayne Neumann, who personally supported several ALP-aligned candidates in the 2016 Ipswich City Council election, told the CCC he supported real-time donation disclosures for candidates.

Mr Neumann, the member for the Ipswich-based seat of Blair, said it was "unconscionable" that voters had to wait up to two years after an election to find out who donated to candidates' campaigns.

"If there's real-time disclosure and you have to do it within seven days, in a case like this, people would have known," he said of the Ipswich election.