The architect behind the Liberal National Party is set to walk away.
The curtain will be drawn on Lawrence Springborg’s stint as party president at the three-day LNP convention starting in Brisbane on Friday.
While Mr Springborg will step down as president, federal opposition leader Sussan Ley is set to step up.
Ms Ley will take centre stage when she addresses the convention on Friday after calling for colleagues to win back the trust of Australian women.
Mr Springborg’s legacy will loom large at the convention, where more than 150 resolutions are set to be debated.
He has been party president since 2021.
But his impact has spanned decades, highlighted by his instrumental role in merging the parties and creating the LNP in 2008.
Mr Springborg will walk away having achieved something unprecedented, QUT Adjunct Associate Professor John Mickel said.
“Some 17 years on (LNP) has not only endured but it has prospered,” Prof Mickel told AAP.
“He has helped formulate a merged identity that nobody else was able to pull off.”
The Queensland-based LNP has savoured local, state and federal success since its inception.
It has dominated Australia’s biggest council – Brisbane City – for 20 years, while David Crisafulli ended Labor’s nine-year reign at the 2024 state election.
The LNP also maintained a lower-house majority in Queensland at the most recent federal election despite Labor pulling off its biggest victory since 1943.
Mr Springborg remains the youngest person elected to Queensland parliament after winning the seat of Carnarvon in 1989 aged 21.
He led the National Party in the early 2000s before heading the first merged LNP in 2008-2009 and 2015-2016.
Mr Springborg had earlier confirmed he would not contest the LNP presidency but will remain mayor of border town Goondiwindi.
As Mr Springborg contemplates a new chapter, Ms Ley has urged colleagues to do the same ahead of Friday’s address.
The opposition leader told the LNP women’s conference on Thursday if they want to win the next federal election they must win back the trust of Australian women.
She said the coalition would be stronger with women at the heart of its decisions and direction, calling for females to be pre-selected in winnable seats by the 2028 election.
She asked members to be bold and lead the national conversation on women’s economic participation, safety and leadership.
The list of 163 resolutions set to be discussed in open sessions over the three days include abandoning net zero, phasing out pokies and an anti-Semitism summit.
Nationals leader David Littleproud will address the conference on Saturday and Mr Crisafulli on Sunday.
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