Tasmanian Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam will quit politics before the next federal election, saying he wants to put his family ahead of his career.
Duniam, the opposition’s home affairs and immigration spokesman, will retire before the end of this year after 25 years in politics, including 10 years in the Senate.
“I have given everything to these responsibilities, often at the expense of family,” he said in a statement.
“It is time I reversed my priorities and I can’t do that if I am to stay in politics.”
The 43-year-old said his three sons had grown up for large chunks of their childhood without him around and he could no longer keep doing that.
He said his family had paid the price of his absence and he wanted to spend less time flying away for work.
Duniam said even before entering the Senate his roles had meant long hours and heavy travel and the decision to leave was an easy one.
“25 years is a long time in any vocation and, when you take your role seriously, it always comes first,” he said.
Duniam acknowledged he was leaving at a hard time for the federal Coalition but backed its direction.
He praised opposition leader Angus Taylor and Nationals senator Matt Canavan, saying “no two people” were better equipped to lead the country back to success.
The senator listed achievements including saving the Mersey hospital and securing $730m for its operation in 2017, backing forestry and aquaculture and fighting for the future of 5,000 salmon jobs.
He also pointed to protecting funding for emergency relief programs and leading multi-partisan campaigns to secure Tasmania’s share of GST.
Duniam said Taylor had asked him to stay on briefly to finish work on the Coalition’s immigration policies, including its Australian Values migration plan.
He described representing Tasmania as “a blessing and the honour of a lifetime” and said he was leaving behind cherished friendships built over more than a decade.
Duniam holds arts and law degrees and worked for former senators Paul Calvert, Stephen Parry and Eric Abetz, who is now Tasmania’s treasurer.
He was deputy chief of staff to former premier Will Hodgman under then chief of staff Brad Stansfield, who announced his own Liberal Senate pre-selection candidacy on Friday.
Duniam won his Senate seat in 2016 before defeating Abetz for the top spot on the ticket ahead of the 2022 election.
He served as an assistant minister for forestry and fisheries, regional tourism and industry development in the Morrison government, before taking on the home affairs portfolio in a reshuffle in February.
Duniam said he left federal politics proud and grateful but exhausted.
