TREASURER Joe Hockey is expected to announce on Tuesday night that Australians will soon have to work to 70 to access the age pension.
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Apparently Calare MP John Cobb has no intentions of lasting that long on the job, though.
Mr Cobb has given the clearest indication yet of his plans for the future, saying he believes he has one more election campaign in him.
And after securing nearly two-thirds of the two-party preferred vote at last year’s election, there is no question he would be successful again in 2016.
The next election after that [assuming each government runs its full term] would be due in 2019 when Mr Cobb will be 69.
And he says that’s when he would pull the plug on what, by then, will be 18 years in Canberra.
It seems the only threat to Mr Cobb’s plan would have to come from within his own party if local Nationals decide someone else should run for them in 2016.
There is no shortage of potential candidates across the Calare electorate, with the state seats of both Bathurst [Paul Toole] and Orange [Andrew Gee] held by Nationals, while another National in Gary Rush is currently the mayor of Bathurst.
The Orange and Bathurst branches of the Nationals also boast very capable executive members who might fancy a career in Canberra.
The Calare region is now one of the Nationals’ real strongholds at all levels of government and that creates plenty of competition for positions.
That should be a good thing for the party, but could also have a destabilising effect.
Mr Cobb is currently sitting at the top of the tree and probably deserves to decide his own fate after so many years of service.
But there must be plenty of people eyeing off the federal job - and the state seats if they become vacant - so he would be wise not to become complacent. Perhaps that’s why Mr Cobb has spoken so decisively now about his intentions.
No doubt he still has plenty of support across the Calare electorate - and he wants to be sure those in his own party are well aware of that.