Cr Quirk delivered his Annual Lord Mayor's The State of the City Address at the BDA: The Committee for Brisbane event but declined a meal and then sat at the table while those around him had steak for lunch.

Laws to ban property developers from making donations to political parties were reintroduced to Queensland Parliament in March.

The legislation had been introduced in late 2017 but lapsed because of the timing of the state election.

A spokesman for the lord mayor said there was still uncertainty around the new donation laws.

"As the Brisbane Development Association may be a prohibited donor under the legislation, the lord mayor is not able to accept any gifts from them," he said.

"Recent legal advice from the LGAQ was that even a cup of coffee from a prohibited donor would constitute a banned gift.

"Until such time as the uncertainty of this new legislation is resolved, the advice provided to the lord mayor has been to play it safe. Therefore he won’t be eating a meal at [the] event."

BDA: The Committee for Brisbane is an independent not-for-profit organisation that focuses on industry and community development.

BDA declined to comment on the lord mayor's decision to decline lunch.

Opposition leader Peter Cumming, who also attended the event but paid for his ticket, said all the lord mayor had to do to avoid the situation was pay for a ticket.

"For once in his life, all he had to do was pay for his ticket instead of being a lord mayoral freeloader," he said.

There were four other LNP councillors in attendance, but the lord mayor's spokesman said no other councillors were guests of the BDA and had either paid for their own ticket or were guests of other firms.

It is understood Cr Quirk also returned a small gift of locally produced honey to the event host that he had been given as a thank-you for presenting.

The honey was valued at less than $20.