He said while some people would say he was quitting before facing the electorate, the opinion polls showed that would probably win the seat if he ran again. Calling it quits: an emotional Tony Windsor stands with Rob Oakeshott after announcing he will not recontest the next election. Credit:Andrew Meares ''I think you're all aware of some of the circumstances of the hung Parliament, the vitriol that has been out there, the campaigns . . . that have been levelled at the independents in particular but the Parliament as well. That has had an impact on our family,'' he said. Mr Windsor said he was most proud of the work in tackling climate change with a carbon price and congratulated the Prime Minister and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet. ''That is a very significant issue and I see the President of the United States this morning moving into that space as well. I think any sensible government, irrespective of who it is, next time will have to really start to address that rather than the short-term politics of it,'' he said.

Mr Windsor has had a long parliamentary career. He was elected to the NSW Parliament as an independent in 1991, staying on until 2001 when he resigned to contest the federal election. He has held the federal seat of New England as an independent ever since. Independent MPs Rob Oakeshott, left, and Tony Windsor are angry at a deal between Labor and the Coalition on political funding. Credit:Andrew Meares Senator Joyce issued a longer statement complimenting his rival upon his retirement. "When you are on the football paddock you always have immense respect for the toughest of players that you come across in politics. They do not come any tougher than the member for New England," he said. Calling it quits: Tony Windsor. Credit:Andrew Meares

"I have never doubted his focus on the people of New England. At times obviously I questioned his mechanism, but today is his.'' In announcing his retirement, Mr Oakeshott also rejected accusations he was avoiding the judgment of his electorate. "I will stand at the front of the queue to say I'm not the Messiah, I'm just a naughty boy," Mr Oakeshott told Fairfax Media. "I'll stand at the front of the queue to say I've made a bucketload of mistakes in this Parliament, but I've done it with honour and good faith to try and represent a community the best I can." Mr Oakeshott admitted he was a bit "bruised and battered" after a combative and often "nasty" 43rd Parliament.

But Mr Oakeshott defended the record of Labor's minority government. "This has been a Parliament that has done more than any other that I know of in my lifetime and certainly done plenty of work and unfinished business of majority governments past," he said. Mr Oakeshott rejected the accusations made by some that he was retreating from a contest he would lose in the September election. Union polling had shown it would be a "very close contest and completely dispels that myth that the Lyne electorate was not happy with the way I managed that balance of power", he said. "It's clearly indicated the majority were happy with how I had handled the balance of power.

"Ninety per cent of people who voted for me were saying they were happy with the way things were going. That was only last week." Mr Oakeshott ends 17 years in public life, which began in 1996, aged 25, when he was elected to the NSW legislative assembly for the Nationals in the seat of Port Macquarie. During his 12 years in NSW Parliament, Mr Oakeshott was a shadow minister for sport, racing, gaming, ports and fisheries. He resigned from the Nationals and as a shadow minister in 2002 and became an independent. Mr Oakeshott joined Federal Parliament in 2008, when he was elected to the House of Representatives for Lyne as an independent. He won a byelection brought about by the resignation of former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Mark Vaile. But it was in the first week of September, 2010, when Mr Oakeshott came to national attention. Amid the first hung Parliament since the 1940s, Mr Oakeshott and other independent MPs – Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor – were involved in negotiations to break the election deadlock and anoint either Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard as Australia's next prime minister.

The country hung in political limbo for a fortnight while the negotiations went on. Mr Oakeshott finally announced his decision to support a Gillard government in a joint press conference with New England MP Mr Windsor, revealing that both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott had offered him senior positions in return for his support. He said then that his decision had been "an absolute line ball, points decision, judgment call". Labor's commitment to build a national broadband network and address climate change were important factors in Mr Oakeshott's decision, as was a deal he struck with the party to promote regional development. Recalling that famous week in September, Mr Oakeshott told Fairfax Media it was an "extraordinary moment".

"A couple of us were thrown in the middle of it without a manual," he said. "We were literally working it out on our feet." Prime Minister Julia Gillard praised the two independents as they announced their retirement, describing Mr Oakeshott as a ''man of energy and ideas'' and Mr Windsor as ''one of Australia's great parliamentarians''. In a statement on Tuesday, Ms Gillard said Mr Oakeshott's ''fundamental optimism for Australia endears him to almost everyone who knows him''. Acknowledging his efforts to improve education, investment in regional Australia, and work on the Clean Energy Future legislation, Ms Gillard added: ''Rob smiles easily and wears his heart on his sleeve and politics could do with more of that, not less.''” Of Mr Windsor, the Prime Minister said he had ''long ago earned the respect and affection of his community in New England. In the past three years he has earned the respect and affection of many Australians from all political persuasions''.

Ms Gillard said that millions would be sorry to see him leave Parliament at the next election: ''and I will be one of them.'' The Prime Minister said she had enjoyed working with Mr Windsor and that his legacy could been seen around his New England community. Ms Gillard said many would think of the Environment Protection Bio-diversity Act Amendment (Water Trigger) as his ''signature achievement'' in this final term of public office and one ''characteristic of Tony himself: legislating a responsible and mature policy approach to an issue of great community concern among the people he represents''. A spokesman for Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie has rejected any suggestion he might also retire. "Andrew still plans to recontest Denison and the federal election, and is certainly not about to announce his political retirement," he said.