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Bob Carr expected to announce retirement Bob Carr announces retirement
(about 1 hour later)
Former foreign minister Bob Carr is expected to announce his retirement from politics on Wednesday. Former foreign minister Bob Carr will enter academia after formally tendering his resignation from the Senate on Wednesday.
It is thought the Labor senator will confirm he is quitting federal parliament at a media conference in Canberra at 10am AEDT. Carr has confirmed weeks of speculation that he is leaving politics following Labor's election defeat on 7 September.
This follows weeks of speculation he was planning to leave following Labor's election loss on 7 September. "It's been a very great honour for me," Carr said of his 18 months as foreign minister.
The former prime minister Julia Gillard recruited Carr 18 months ago to take over as foreign minister after Kevin Rudd resigned to challenge for the Labor leadership. "Life is a learning experience and the last 18 months has been the richest learning experience imaginable."
He filled a Senate vacancy triggered by the retirement of former minister Mark Arbib. Carr said he believed he had also done some good in the role.
The NSW Labor administrative committee is expected to elect former lower house MP Deb O'Neill to fill the Carr vacancy. She will then require the endorsement of a joint sitting of both houses of the NSW state parliament. The former New South Wales premier was recruited by former prime minister Julia Gillard in March 2012 to take over as foreign minister after Kevin Rudd resigned to challenge for the Labor leadership.
Carr, who has kept a low profile for the past month, was re-elected at the September election for a six-year term starting on 1 July next year, and will technically need to resign both the current term and the next. He filled a Senate vacancy triggered by the retirement of the former minister Mark Arbib.
Carr said he would submit his resignation to the president of the Senate on Thursday.
He now plans to "reinvent" himself as an expert on Asia and is going to take up two part-time academic posts.
He will become a professorial fellow at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at Sydney University. He will also take up a role as an adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales.
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