Downer confirms retirement from politics

(AAP) - Alexander Downer denies he is jumping from a sinking Liberal Party ship by quitting parliament, saying he considered leaving politics before last year's election loss.

Mr Downer, Australia's longest serving foreign minister, has confirmed he will quit politics on July 14, forcing a by-election in his South Australian seat of Mayo.

The 56-year-old finally heeded pleas from his wife, Nicky, to retire from politics.

"I wanted this for a very long time," Mrs Downer said on Thursday.
Mr Downer, who has held Mayo since 1984, will form a business consultancy company
with former Labor senator Nick Bolkus and Ian Smith, the husband of former Democrats
senator Natasha Stott-Despoja.

He will also take up an expected offer to become the United Nations' special envoy
for Cyprus, and has also accepted a part-time position at Adelaide University's
School of History.
But Mr Downer, a former Liberal leader and a senior figure on John Howard's
frontbench, denied he was leaving the Liberals in the lurch in opposition.

"I am not leaving because I have lost, I am leaving because now is the time to go on
and do other things in my life," Mr Downer told reporters.
"If we had won the election I don't know what I would have done.
"During the last term, there were points where I thought I would quite like to leave
politics, encouraged by Nicky.

"But we had an election coming up and I thought it was important as one of the most
senior members of the government that I continued."
Mr Downer said the coalition's election loss last November left the Liberals "demoralised, defeated, depressed".

"In the context of just having lost an election, seven months later, the federal
coalition are doing pretty well," he said.
Mr Downer said his nine months as Liberal Party leader from May 1994 were "a tad up
and down - it started up and then went down".
But he had no regrets.
"We all make mistakes, but I don't have regrets," he said.
"I have made a full-blooded effort as a member of parliament ... some people don't
agree with what I have done, which is fair enough, I respect that, and plenty do
(agree).
"I just feel that I did my best, I worked incredibly hard and I argued for the
things I believed in - sometimes they were popular, sometimes they weren't."
Mr Downer, who rated helping East Timor achieve independence the highlight of his
political career, said Mayo voters were "understanding" of his decision, despite
voting for him just seven months ago.
"I was something like the third longest serving member of the House of
Representatives ... it's a very, very long time to be in one position," he said.
"The Liberal Party, inevitably, like all political movements, does need renewal of
its personnel."
Mr Downer's political career followed in the footsteps of his father, Sir Alexander
Downer, a cabinet minister during his 14-year tenure in federal parliament; and his
grandfather, Sir John Downer, who was twice SA premier and a senator in the first
federal parliament in 1901.
He said he would support a bid by any of his four children - Georgina, Olivia,
Edward and Henrietta - to enter parliament and continue the Downer dynasty.
"It's an extraordinarily honourable vocation," he said.
"It ill behoves this country to go around continually sneering at and criticising
people who have put their hand up for public office.
"If everybody took the view that there is something dishonourable about public
office, you would see a dramatic decline in the quality of people in government in
this country. And the consequences would be simply enormous."
Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said Alexander Downer was a "true and
fearless leader" of Liberal values.
He said the former Liberal leader as a dedicated politician who had been
instrumental in securing victory for former prime minister John Howard at the 1996
federal election.
Mr Downer's achievements included significant roles in the Bougainville peace
process in 1997 and in bringing independence to East Timor in 1999, Dr Nelson said.
"It should also be recognised that Alexander Downer was instrumental in driving some
of the key defence procurement decisions which have rebuilt the Australian Defence
Force," Dr Nelson said.
"On behalf of the Liberal Party of Australia, I would like to thank Alexander Downer
for his magnificent service."
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says Mr Downer's exit is "a good thing" but
politicians should remain in their seats for the period in which they are elected.
"I think people who go to elections should stay there, and I'm not impressed by
people standing for election one month and then standing down the next month when
they didn't get what they wanted," Senator Brown told reporters.
The Greens would run a strong campaign to take the seat of Mayo from the Liberal
Party, he said.
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer's new business partner has advised him not
to don the fish-net stockings in his new life after federal politics.
Former Labor minister Nick Bolkus will go into partnership with Mr Downer at an
Adelaide-based consultancy firm called Bespoke Approach.
"I think the only advice I could give him was not to wear fish-net stockings
anymore," Mr Bolkus told ABC Radio, referring to a 1990s photograph of Mr Downer
wearing fishnet stockings at a children's charity event.
Mr Bolkus said the fact that both he and his new partner didn't come from the same
political lines wasn't a bad thing.
"I think one of the under-recognised features of federal politics is that the
conflict that's on TV is basically the tip of the iceberg," he said.
"You spend a lot of time working with people you don't necessarily share policy
outcomes with but you work with and you work constructively with and this.. is no
different."
"I look at the fact that, for instance, in South Australia, he's done some pretty
critical work for Labor governments as well as Liberal governments."
Mr Bolkus said he was sure people would see them as a bit of an "odd couple."
"But, look at any boardroom, look at this through the prism of the non-Canberra
world, look at it through the prism, for instance, of the corporate world.
"Boards from across the country bring people from different backgrounds and
different philosophies together and that's the strength of the board."
Mr Bolkus said Mr Downer's experience as foreign minister would "equip him extremely
well" if he did go to Cyprus as the UN's special envoy.