Thank you, colleagues and thank you, Mr. Speaker. The survey noted, Mr. Speaker, that those Members with between six and 10 years of service were now living on between $25,000 and $30,000 a year. Many of them were in their 30s and 40s and, although to many people that's a good salary, the fact that after one year they were still desperately trying to find something to do didn't give them much prospect of finding a meaningful place in the workforce.
Mr. Dobell noted that politicians are no longer considered to have the marketable skills that for many, many years it was assumed they had. They are no longer viewed positively by employers as they had once been. The lesson from the survey, Mr. Speaker, is that the most contented politicians were those who had left of their own accord and had not risked being rejected by their voters. That is a lesson that all of us, I'm sure, are going to have to consider over the next six months or so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause