No message, no punch but cliches to burn
16.03.2009

COMMENT
IN 1989 Lawrence Springborg, aged 21, was elected as a National Party MP, the youngest person ever elected to the Queensland parliament.
Shortly afterwards he told a senior journalist in the parliamentary cafeteria that he wanted to make a mark, perhaps one day to be premier, and asked for advice to achieve that aim.
It was pointed out that as he had left school at 14 the smartest thing he could do would be to jump the fence at the back of Parliament House into the grounds of the university of technology, enrol and broaden his knowledge, particularly with history and economics.
He ignored the advice. That showed yesterday when he delivered the most lacklustre campaign speech imaginable, one full of cliches, lacking in both punch and message. It was an angry speech devoid of inspiration, wit or anecdote, that failed to embrace a captive audience desperate for a positive experience. Why on earth Springborg would think regurgitating the Bjelke-Petersen schmaltz about ``family values'' would resonate with the electorate defies imagination.
It is puerile for him, or any politician from any party, to promote the view that his party is the only one that cares about the family unit.
He told how his wife Linda takes their four children to the school bus each day, totalling four trips. And how he loves her because of the support she gives him as he is away from home so much, doing his job.
Well, hello! Millions of wives do the same every day. And most would do so on a household income much less than that provided by Lawrence the hunter-and-gatherer.
It is difficult to understand why, on an occasion like a policy launch, Springborg would have to appear to be so angry. Journalists, staff and politicians who have worked with him over the past two decades cannot remember him ever telling even one joke. Life in Queensland just is not as desperate as it was portrayed yesterday.
Springborg's effort was mightily overshadowed by Brisbane's Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, who gave a timeline demonstrating the Bligh Government's negligent response to last week oil spill contamination of Moreton Bay.
To yesterday's audience, Newman's message was like baby bear's porridge was to Goldilocks -- just right!
It is to be hoped that the speech Springborg delivered yesterday was written by somebody else. If so, he can sack that person.
If Springborg wrote it himself, well, then ...