week, Springborg had to rescind his proposal. On 26 July 2008, his vision of a united non-Labor force in Queensland finally 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. 2009 election Springborg led the LNP into the 2009 Queensland election; despite opinion polls predicting a close contest the ALP led by Anna Bligh retained government. A 20-seat swing to the LNP would have been required to deliver majority government. Springborg led the LNP to an eight percent swing and took 10 seats from Labor, the largest swing to the conservatives in over 14 years. However, the LNP came up 11 seats short of making Springborg premier, largely due to winning only six seats in Brisbane. Following his third electoral defeat, Springborg announced his retirement as party leader and instead was elected deputy leader under John-Paul Langbroek. Springborg along with the entire Liberal National Party supported changes to Queensland's abortion laws. Springborg resigned as deputy leader on 22 March 2011, after Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman announced he was launching a challenge for the LNP leadership. 2015 election The LNP won the biggest majority government in Queensland history at the 2012 election, only to lose it after one term at the 2015 election. Newman lost his own seat, and Springborg was elected LNP leader for the second time. He briefly harboured hope of becoming premier in a minority government, but this was brought undone when independent Peter Wellington threw his support to Labor. Springborg thus became leader of the opposition for the third time. Loss of leadership Springborg lost the leadership to Tim Nicholls on 6 May 2016 in a leadership spill, by 22 votes to 19. On 3 December 2016, he announced his retirement from politics at the next Queensland state election. Months before losing the leadership, there was speculation that Springborg would make a switch to federal politics and therefore resigning the leadership, by seeking preselection for the safe National seat of Maranoa following incumbent and Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott's announcement that he would be retiring at the next election due in 2016 but Springborg ruled this out. Local politics In November 2019, he announced he would be standing as a candidate for Mayor of Goondiwindi Regional Council in the March 2020 election. He was elected unopposed. See also