Lawrence Springborg voted in as LNP president as David Crisafulli pledges reform

A new era has dawned for the LNP with founding father Lawrence Springborg elevated to president and state Opposition Leader David Crisafulli vowing reform.

A new era has dawned for the LNP, with the party’s two leaders pledging to bring reform following a tumultuous year of infighting.

Thirteen years since he brought together the Liberals and the Nationals, father of the LNP Lawrence Springborg was overwhelmingly voted in as president at the highly anticipated state convention in Brisbane, attended by party luminaries but not past presidents Dave Hutchinson and Bruce McIver.

Met with a standing ovation, the stalwart pledged to rank-and-file members that the state executive and parliamentary wing would work together – a key criticism of last year’s devastating state election loss, when the party executive was called out for working against then leader Deb Frecklington.

Mr Springborg’s ascension was guaranteed after acting president Cynthia Hardy made a last-minute call not to contest – a move sources said was the right one, suggesting she would have faced baseball bats mostly meant for her predecessor, Mr Hutchinson, and other backroom dealers.

State Opposition Leader David Crisafulli speaks at the LNP State Convention in South Brisbane. Picture: Richard Gosling

In a short speech before the vote – which was billed as an open session but was then closed to media – Mr Springborg promised his leadership style would be one that respected the members.

“We are nothing without our membership and we should never, ever, ever lose sight of that,” Mr Springborg told the room.

“The State Executive is not the parliamentary party, and the parliamentary party is not the state executive.

“They have separate roles and should stay separate but they should work together to serve the membership because it is about the membership and their aspirations and that is a very, very key thing and that’s the style of leadership that I would bring.”

LNP Leader David Crisafulli later drew on the memory of the party’s historic amalgamation – orchestrated by Mr Springborg – to call for party unity and “the start of our new tomorrow”.

Declaring now was the time to be “driven by unity, not vengeance”, the leader asked members to put arguments about “personalities” in the past.

Lawrence Springborg at the LNP state convention in Brisbane. Picture: Richard Gosling

“Thirteen years ago, our predecessors knew that for the sake of Queenslanders the centre-right polity had to reform and unite,” he said.

“So I set this challenge for our party today: From this weekend onwards, let us keep faith with the promise of unity and dedication to Queensland that premised the formation of the LNP.”

Mr Crisafulli said the LNP should have its arguments and that the leadership and himself should not be exempt from criticism.

Meanwhile, chairing the election of the office bearers, former president Gary Spence acknowledged the now infamous photo of himself and other former presidents Mr McIver and Mr Hutchinson on Clive Palmer’s yacht on the night of the election, saying he was happy to speak to anyone about it.

The image, captured by The Sunday Mail, fuelled infighting within the party and was understood to have been the subject of discussion on several occasions over the past two days at convention.

Senator Paul Scarr and former member for Caloundra Mark McArdle also handed down their “scathing” state election report which included 50 recommendations including that parliamentary leaders should know when polling is being undertaken by the party and that neither arm should commission polling without the other’s knowledge.

Lawrence Springborg speaks with Peter Dutton. Picture: Richard Gosling

The pair again recommended putting candidates in the field earlier and empowering grassroots members, which were in the previous post-mortem report into the 2017 state election.

The room was receptive to the report.

It’s understood Mr Springborg has already asked Mr McArdle and Senator Scarr to help implement it following criticisms that previous reviews had been done but then remained unactioned.

Mr Crisafulli had earlier foreshadowed the results of the review, saying it reflected the party membership’s desire for reform.

“My plea to this room, and to the administrative arm of the party, is do not waste this opportunity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Natalie Marr, who ran in Thuringowa at the 2020 state election, was ­elected as regional vice-president, while Amanda Cooper, a former Brisbane City Councillor, was voted in as metro vice-president.

It’s the first time that two women have held the positions at the same time.

They join Mr Springborg on the party’s executive in what’s considered a major coup for Mr Crisafulli, who had wanted to work with the trio to push reform.

This weekend’s conference comes two months after Mr Crisafulli stared down backroom powerbrokers and outlined plans for “monumental” change following the horror election and amid unrelenting internal friction.

He called for a dismantling of the President’s Committee which was this week abolished, and also for more power to be given to grassroots members and women.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and federal ministers Peter Dutton and Stuart Robert were among the federal and state members to attend yesterday.

But former premier and newly appointed party trustee Campbell Newman was notably absent.