Downer Farewells Politics
The Age
Friday July 4, 2008
FORMER foreign minister Alexander Downer considered leaving politics before the November 24 election and may have quit even if the Howard government had been returned.
Denying his departure from Canberra on July 14 was triggered by the Liberal Party loss, Mr Downer said his wife, Nicky, had been urging him to leave for some time."During the course of the last term there were points where I thought I would quite like to leave politics," Mr Downer said. "But we had an election coming up and I thought it was important as one of the most senior members of the government to continue there."Mr Downer rejected a suggestion he should apologise for forcing a federal byelection seven months after standing as the Liberal candidate in the seat of Mayo, saying his departure would be understood by voters. "My (foreign affairs) predecessor Gareth Evans left mid-term from his seat in Victoria, it quite often happens," Mr Downer said at a media conference in the Adelaide Hills seat he won nine times and represented for almost 24 years.Mr Downer, 56, will take on a still unconfirmed job as part-time United Nations envoy to troubled Cyprus and a visiting professorship in history at Adelaide University. He will also become part of a new business alliance with a former political foe, Nick Bolkus, in the consultancy firm Bespoke Approach. It has been set up by public relations consultant Ian Smith, who is married to former Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja. "This is a business that will work very well because we bring together my international experience and obviously I have contacts with the Liberal Party," Mr Downer said. "You have got Nick with all his contacts through the Labor Party and Ian with his extensive business experience."Mr Downer and Mr Bolkus got together at Mr Smith's invitation earlier this year. Nicky Downer, who attended the press conference with two of the couple's four children, said she had wanted her husband to leave politics for a very long time.Mr Downer, once touted as a South Australian Liberal Party leader, ruled out a second career in state politics. "I don't want to be an MP any more, this is it for me," he said.He praised his successor as Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, as "very charming and decent".
© 2008 The Age