Mr Pearce, who last week announced he would not renominate for the seat, will stand down at the end of this parliamentary term.

On Monday, he told the Knox Journal of the highlights and challenges of his eight-year stint in Federal Parliament.

He also revealed it had become "increasingly harder" to juggle his work and family commitments as Daniel grew older.

"He and my wife are my principal reasons for my decision to retire. He wants to be with me and I want to be with him more. I owe it to him to do that.

"I love trying to help people and trying to make the country a better place, but I also want to be the best dad I can, and you can't necessarily have it both ways."

Mr Pearce, who served as a Knox councillor from 1997 to 2000 before winning the Aston byelection in 2001, expects the current term to go until at least August next year.

"Ten years, that's not a bad innings, is it, trying to help people?"

He predicted he would remain involved with the local community as it had been the highlight of his career in federal politics.

"I have always described this job as being two jobs - one here in the electorate and one in Canberra.

"In the electorate, it's about being able to help people with private issues and concerns, some of which are very serious and complex.

"One of the most rewarding things has been being able to work with them through that very complex issue and assist."

In Parliament, he said, the biggest challenge had been the conscience votes on issues such as stem cell research and transferring the power of approval of the controversial "abortion pill" RU 486 to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Mr Pearce had no predictions about the future of Aston, which is considered marginal.

"There's no such thing as a safe seat but what I do know is that if a candidate puts themselves forward and their heart's in the right place, they have the potential to be elected."

He expected the next election campaign to be influenced by "the impact of what's happening with the economy and the significant amount of debt the country's been plunged into".

Mr Pearce said billions of dollars in interest to be paid over coming years would be taken from other services. "I worry for the people of Aston about what the impact of that will be."