Labor MP resigns, page-18

It's a bit melodramatic to imply this is a self harm situation. He's decided that being a federal politician from WA is not compatible with his family life. He was a shadow minister. Quitting his portfolio responsibility and announcing he's quitting at the next election would take work stress out of the equation. He's not working in some remote wasteland. He's working in elite circles in a relatively vibrant city . If he wants his family there some of the time he can bring them with him. Otherwise he can use facetime and similar technology to keep in touch every day. He doesn't need to be in Canberra every week...parliament shuts down for 7 weeks in winter and 7 weeks in summer and only sits for 8 weeks in the second half of the year (4 days per week). The weeks he is there he can go home at the weekend. It looks to me as though once he decided politics was no longer his long term career he decided it was a waste of his time to hang around (which it is) so he might as well quit effective immediately and move on with his life. It shouldn't be up to other people to pay $1.5 million so that his quality of life is better for the next 12 months.

Reaper.