Lawrence Springborg
Encyclopedia
Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) is an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician and became Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 since 2 April 2009. He was deputy leader of the new Liberal National Party. He has been a National Party of Australia
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...

 since 1989, representing the electorates of Carnarvon
Electoral district of Carnarvon
Carnarvon was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland that existed from 1873 to 1992.The district took in rural areas in southern Queensland, including the towns of Stanthorpe and Goondiwindi....

 (1989–1992), Warwick
Electoral district of Warwick
Warwick was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland from 1860 to 2001. It centred on the town of Warwick....

 (1992–2001) and Southern Downs
Electoral district of Southern Downs
The district of Southern Downs is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.The district takes in the southern parts of the Darling Downs region along the New South Wales border. It includes the major towns of Warwick, Stanthorpe and Goondiwindi and...

 (2001–present).

He previously served as Leader of the Opposition
Opposition (parliamentary)
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...

 from 2003 to 2006, and took the National Party to both the 2004 election and 2006 election. He resigned as leader after his second election defeat in 2006, and was replaced by his former deputy, Jeff Seeney
Jeff Seeney
Jeffrey William Seeney is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since the 1998 state election, representing the National Party and merged Liberal National Party ....

. However, after only 16 months as leader and facing poor opinion polling against him, Springborg replaced Seeney to once again become Leader of the Queensland National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

.

He played a part in the creation of the Liberal National Party, but led it to defeat at the 2009 Queensland state election
Queensland state election, 2009
The Queensland state election was held to elect members to the unicameral Parliament of Queensland on 21 March 2009. The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh defeat the Liberal National Party of Queensland led by Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, and gain a...

. On the 2nd of April 2009, John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Honoré Langbroek is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Party, in the seat of Surfers Paradise since 2004...

 was elected as his successor as the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland. Springborg was then elected Deputy Leader by fellow party members. Springborg's deputy leadership ended in early 2011.

Early life

Born in 1968, Lawrence Springborg left school at the age of 14. He then went on to work a farm on Queensland's Darling Downs for seven years before he was elected to Parliament in 1989 at the age of 21.

Parliamentary career

In the 1989 Queensland state election, Springborg became the youngest person elected to the Parliament of Queensland
Parliament of Queensland
The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. According to the state's constitution, the Parliament consists of the Queen and the Legislative Assembly. It is the only unicameral state parliament in the country, the upper chamber, the Legislative Council, having been...

, winning the safe Nationals seat of Carnarvon
Electoral district of Carnarvon
Carnarvon was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland that existed from 1873 to 1992.The district took in rural areas in southern Queensland, including the towns of Stanthorpe and Goondiwindi....

, on the Darling Downs. In the same year, the 32-year reign of the Nationals at a State level drew to a close. Springborg represented a new generation of Nationals not associated with the era of long-serving former Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG , was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state...

, and the allegations of corruption and maladministration arising from the Fitzgerald Inquiry
Fitzgerald Inquiry
The Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland Police corruption was a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald QC. The inquiry resulted in the deposition of a premier, two by-elections, the jailing of three former ministers and a police commissioner who was jailed and lost his...

. Subsequent redistributions forced Springborg to relocate to his current seat of Southern Downs.

The Nationals remained in opposition until 1996, when the Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...

 Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 government lost office following the 1995 state General Election and a consequential adverse finding in the Queensland Court of Disputed Returns and the resignation of the then Premier Wayne Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...

. The reformed National-Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 coalition took power under Rob Borbidge
Rob Borbidge
Robert Edward Borbidge AO , Australian politician, was the 35th Premier of Queensland, and leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party...

 but only with the support of independent MLA Liz Cunningham
Liz Cunningham
Elizabeth Anne "Liz" Cunningham is an Australian politician. She has been an independent member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 1995, representing the electorate of Gladstone...

. In 1998, shortly before the Borbidge government lost office, Springborg was sworn in as Minister for Natural Resources, again setting a record as Queensland's youngest ever minister.

The 2001 state elections saw a massive win for the Labor Party, with Premier Peter Beattie
Peter Beattie
Peter Douglas Beattie , Australian politician, was the 36th Premier of the Australian state of Queensland for nine years and leader of the Australian Labor Party in that state for eleven and a half years...

 going from a one-seat to twenty-two seat majority, and the Nationals reduced to 12 seats out of the 89-seat Parliament. After the election loss, the Coalition with the Liberals was ended and Springborg was elected Deputy Opposition Leader.

Borbidge subsequently resigned as Leader of the Nationals and his place was taken by Mike Horan
Mike Horan
Michael James "Mike" Horan is an Australian politician representing the seat of Toowoomba South in the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 18 May 1991. He was the Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries and now serves as Opposition Whip...

, father of international Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player Tim Horan
Tim Horan
Tim Horan AM is a former Australian rugby union footballer. He played for the Queensland Reds in the Super 12, and represented Australia, he was one of the best centres in the world throughout the 1990s due to his attacking prowess, formidable defence and playmaking ability.As well as inside...

. After widespread speculation and criticism, the Nationals elected Springborg as leader in 2003.

2004 election

The campaign for the 2004 state election relied heavily on Springborg's personal profile. He literally ran for much of the campaign, appearing jogging
Jogging
Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running.-Definition:...

 through State forests on electoral advertising emphasising his physical fitness. The Nationals marketed Springborg merchandise extensively, including life-size cardboard cutouts. In a move unthinkable for Nationals of an earlier era, he appeared in a Courier-Mail photograph clad only in a towel and ironing his own shirt.

Springborg's family life attracted some comment when media observers criticised his wife for not appearing alongside him during the campaign. Springborg angrily defended his wife's decision to stay home and care for their young family.

Throughout the campaign, Liberal leader Bob Quinn
Bob Quinn (Australian politician)
Robert Joseph Quinn is an Australian Liberal Party politician in the Queensland parliament. He was leader of the Queensland Liberal Party from 2001 until being ousted on 7 August 2006 by Bruce Flegg....

 appeared at Springborg's side, intended to emphasise Coalition unity, but underlining for Liberal supporters their resentment at what they saw as their "second-fiddle" status.

Despite scandals involving electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 and child protection, as well as a motorway through the Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...

, an issue which destroyed the Goss Government, the Beattie Government was elected with its substantial majority almost completely intact. The Nationals gained a total of three extra seats and the Liberal-National Coalition, despite the efforts of both parties' leaders, again broke down.

2006 election

As water management
Water management
Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. In an ideal world. water management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands...

 became an increasingly important issue during the drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

, Springborg criticised Labor's handling of the water issue. Amid speculation that the next state election would be called early, the Liberal Party deposed Quinn and elected Bruce Flegg
Bruce Flegg
Dr Bruce Flegg is the Queensland Shadow Ministerfor Education, Training and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and the Member for Moggill having been elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006 and 2009....

 as leader in his place, who has in the past had a poor relationship with Springborg. Springborg pressed Beattie to serve a full term and not call an election before one was due. On 15 August 2006, Beattie called an election for 9 September of that year. Springborg again conceded defeat at 8pm on 9 September 2006.

In the wake of his second election defeat, he announced his resignation as leader of the National Party on 14 September 2006. His former deputy, Jeff Seeney
Jeff Seeney
Jeffrey William Seeney is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since the 1998 state election, representing the National Party and merged Liberal National Party ....

 ascended to the leadership position uncontested on 18 September 2006, alongside Maroochydore representative Fiona Simpson
Fiona Simpson
Fiona Stuart Simpson is an Australian politician. She is currently a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and was the Deputy Leader of the Queensland National Party from 2006 to 2008 and Deputy Leader of the Opposition...

 as Deputy Leader.

Political comeback

After Deputy Fiona Simpson
Fiona Simpson
Fiona Stuart Simpson is an Australian politician. She is currently a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and was the Deputy Leader of the Queensland National Party from 2006 to 2008 and Deputy Leader of the Opposition...

 withdrew her support for current leader Jeff Seeney
Jeff Seeney
Jeffrey William Seeney is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since the 1998 state election, representing the National Party and merged Liberal National Party ....

, he announced a partyroom challenge to take place on 21 January 2008, with former leader Springborg the front runner.
Springborg won the challenge and began renewed talks of a merger to form a single 'non-Labor force' in Queensland. On 26 July 2008 this became reality when both parties voted to form the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

Like his ousting of Mike Horan in 2003, Springborg's ousting of Seeney meant that once again Springborg ousted an Opposition Leader who was not given a chance to present his case to the people.

Conservative merger

The failure of the two conservative parties to sign a new Coalition Agreement convinced Springborg of the need to merge the Liberals and Nationals at a state level. Presenting a proposal modelled on the Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

, Springborg went about campaigning through 2004 for the support of both state party organisations in creating a new unified party.

The rural-based Nationals have historically been the dominant conservative force in Queensland, but increased urbanisation has meant that the Liberals have repeatedly attempted to gain dominance. "Three-cornered contests", where Liberal and National Party candidates compete for seats separately against Labor candidates and split the conservative vote, are common in Queensland. This situation is made worse by the fact that the state's Optional Preferential Voting
Optional Preferential Voting
Optional Preferential Voting is a system of vote-casting used in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. Most Australian elections are run under full-preference preferential voting, where all candidates must be numbered in order of the preference of the...

 system operates effectively as a first-past-the-post
First-past-the-post
First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...

 system and prevents Liberal and National candidates supporting each other by preferences. Relations between the two queensland parties were tepid, as witnessed by the repeated failure of coalition agreements.

Springborg's proposal ran into early hurdles when John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

, John Anderson
John Anderson (Australian politician)
John Duncan Anderson AO is a former Australian politician. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the rural-based National Party of Australia from July 1999 to July 2005.-Early years:...

, and other Federal Coalition identities dismissed the idea of a state-level merger. Bob Quinn
Bob Quinn (Australian politician)
Robert Joseph Quinn is an Australian Liberal Party politician in the Queensland parliament. He was leader of the Queensland Liberal Party from 2001 until being ousted on 7 August 2006 by Bruce Flegg....

 and the state Liberals reacted cautiously, ultimately rebuffing Springborg's efforts. However, Springborg did attract strong support for the idea from the National Party at a State organisational level, with the Central Executive supporting his proposal in February 2005. Some within the state Liberal Party have also reacted positively. Springborg toned down some of his advocacy, however, and was content to announce a renewal of the Coalition agreement with the Liberals on 26 September 2005, aiming to maximise Labor's trouble regarding the scandal instigated by Dr Jayant Patel
Jayant Patel
Jayant Mukundray Patel , referred to as Doctor Death is a surgeon who is at the centre of a 2005 scandal in which he was accused of gross incompetence while working at Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia...

 and the Bundaberg
Bundaberg, Queensland
Bundaberg is a city in Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Local Government Area of the Bundaberg Region and is a major centre within Queensland's broader Wide Bay-Burnett geographical region...

 public hospital.

On 29 May 2006, plans for merger received a new life when the state division of the Liberal party announced its in-principal support for the idea. State director Graeme Greene stated that the merged party "would effectively operate under the federal Liberal Party's model".

Disastrously for Springborg, however, senior figures within both the National and Liberal parties federally, particularly federal Nationals leader Mark Vaile
Mark Vaile
Mark Anthony James Vaile , Australian politician, is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and former leader of the National Party of Australia.-Early life:...

, quickly spoke out against the proposed merger. By the end of the week, Springborg had to rescind his proposal.

On 26 July 2008, his vision of a united non-Labor force in QLD became reality when both parties voted to form the Liberal National Party of Queensland. He has been described as the "father of the party" by successor John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Honoré Langbroek is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Party, in the seat of Surfers Paradise since 2004...

.

2009 election

Springborg led the LNP into the 2009 Queensland election
Queensland state election, 2009
The Queensland state election was held to elect members to the unicameral Parliament of Queensland on 21 March 2009. The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh defeat the Liberal National Party of Queensland led by Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, and gain a...

, despite opinion polls predicting a close contest the ALP led by Anna Bligh
Anna Bligh
Anna Maria Bligh is an Australian politician and the Premier of Queensland since 2007. The 2009 Queensland state election was the first time a female-led political party won or retained state or federal government in Australia...

 retained government. A 20-seat swing to the LNP would have been required to deliver majority government
Majority government
A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...

 with the LNP picking up 10 seats, the largest swing to the conservatives in over 14 years. Following his third electoral defeat, Springborg announced his retirement as party leader and instead was elected deputy leader under John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Honoré Langbroek is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Party, in the seat of Surfers Paradise since 2004...

.

External links

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