Family illnesses the reason behind Mike Baird’s shock resignation

HOLDING back tears, retiring NSW Premier Mike Baird explained the real reason behind his shock resignation.

NSW Premier Mike Baird holds back tears as he announces his retirement. Picture: AAP/Paul Miller

RETIRING NSW Premier Mike Baird has given a convincing reason for his shock departure revealing his family is facing major health struggles.

During a surprise press conference on Thursday morning, the outgoing leader was almost brought to tears when he shared the reason behind his decision.

Mr Baird said after 10 years of public life, he had decided it was time for him to give up politics, but there was also a deeper reason.

The departing leader said he had noticed “a strong personal cost that comes in public life”, and that in the past few months, he had felt it more than any other time.

“My father and my mother and my sister are going through a very serious health challenge, and, to be honest, at times I have been in pain not being able to spend the time that I should,” he said.

Mr Baird went on to detail the devastating circumstances that have taken over his family in recent months.

His father, former NSW transport minister Bruce Baird, was hospitalised with a heart emergency over Christmas, and endured successful open-heart surgery.

Premier Mike Baird with his father Bruce in the Premier’s office in Sydney. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Mr Baird revealed his father had since become a fulltime carer to his mother, Judy, who suffers from muscular dystrophy.

“In the past few months my father has gone through open heart surgery. He’s got a long road back to recovery, but he had become the primary carer for my mother and she’s just gone to 24-hour care,” he said.

“She’s got muscular dystrophy. She is losing function in everything, basically.”

He also broke the news to reporters at the Sydney press conference that his sister, ABC broadcaster and author Julia Baird, had experienced a recurrence of cancer and had recently been receiving treatment in hospital.

“My sister’s had a recurrence of cancer, so I was in hospital with her last week,” he said.

“You know, personal things obviously impact you and the nature of this job makes it tough to be able to support as much as you want.”

Proud of you bro. @mikebairdMP pic.twitter.com/4juPWCQL0U

— Julia Baird (@bairdjulia) January 19, 2017

Julia Baird revealed her cancer battle in 2015.

The Premier’s sister revealed her struggle with ovarian cancer in a moving column published in the New York Times in 2015.

The mother of two explained how she had “quietly contemplated the prospect of death” after learning a “mass the size of a basketball” had formed between her belly button and spine.

“It’s a peculiar, lonely kind of impotence, a cancer diagnosis. If you ran a thousand miles, aced a billion exams, hit a dozen home runs, nothing could reverse or erase the fact of cancer,” she wrote.

Ms Baird said when she began feeling symptoms she dismissed them as exhaustion, and blamed bloating on the masses of chocolate she consumed to get through the editing process for her latest book. She described the feeling of the tumour that was growing inside her as “eerily similar to being pregnant”, and was shocked when told by surgeons: “All the signs are that this is very serious.”

Premier Mike Baird embraces his family after announcing his retirement. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“Your world narrows to a slit when facing a diagnosis like that; suddenly very little matters,” she wrote.

“I told my family and some close friends, then went into lockdown.”

The accomplished writer, who has been busily promoting her new book, a critically acclaimed biography of Queen Victoria, and is frequently seen hosting ABC’s The Drum, said cancer had caused her to reassess her priorities and tried to “live deliberately”.

Ms Baird said she “prayed to God” during her recovery, and emerged from surgery with a positive outlook.

“My prognosis is good, but, like other, I will need to live with the fear of return,” she wrote.

Mr Baird expressed regret in not being able to be there for his sister and other family members during their earlier health struggles.

“This will change today,” he said.