The speaker believes that political environments can be brutalizing, dehumanizing, and significantly detrimental to the mental health of those involved.

“well i also know that politics and my contribution and role within it came very close to destroying me my family all the things i believe in so it's very hard then to say oh let's go and give it another go and try again”

The speaker believes that politicians often struggle with mental health issues due to the pressure of unrealistic expectations placed upon them.

“one of the reasons i think that my colleagues manifest a lot of pretty eccentric um signs i mean sometimes you know very very serious mental health issues you know i've had colleagues that have had breakdowns in parliament colleagues who've tried to kill themselves and i think one of the reasons is ”