In eight years of working 110 hours per week there's one moment that stands out for Dubbo MP Troy Grant.
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"I was on the campaign in 2010 and a lady from Coonabarabran came down with a young bloke to my campaign office in Macquarie Street and said 'Labor has closed Dalwood [Assessment Centre]', which is a specialist centre for reading, literacy, numeracy," Mr Grant said.
"She said 'would you advocate to get it back?'. I said 'I've got to learn a bit more about it, but yeah absolutely'. And we did, we bought it back as the Centre for Effective reading and we improved it."
Mr Grant was friends with children's author Natalie Jane Parker and bought some of her books for the son.
Four years later, the lady and her son walked into the Dubbo MP's office. She wanted her son to read to him
"That was really powerful. I went home that night think 'that's what it's all about'," Mr Grant said.
"Hospitals and roads and bridges and police stuff, it's all great and necessary, and important but that kid's story is the one that will stick with me the most. If you can't read and write you don't have a lot of prospects in life. Now he's got a future.
At 5pm on Friday, March 22, Mr Grant will hand in his keys and passes and no longer hold the title of Member for Dubbo. He'll remain an unpaid Minister until the new Premier is sworn in.
After the election, and his official duties finish, Mr Grant said he planned to "sleep for a week".
With a mortgage to pay, two kids in university and no government pension, he'll then start looking for a new career.
But in the meantime, Mr Grant said he was looking forward to being out of the pubic eye. He also plans to make up for lost time with his wife Toni and their kids.
"They had an absent dad. I've essentially missed my kids' entire high school life. I would have wanted to be there for a whole heap of stuff but at really key times in their life I wasn't there. It's been really difficult," he said.
"Toni did a magnificent job with them but there's only so much you can do as one parent. When you drop back into their lives it creates tension at home - 'well you're never here', 'don't tell me what to do'. It's really hard to manage and that's the bit I'm focused on the most, reconnecting with the kids and making them the centre of my life to repay them.
"They're the ones who sacrificed more than I did. I hated being away from home 200 nights a year - I get really homesick - but the ones who had to pay the price were Toni and the kids. I love them to death and I'm just really thankfully to them for allowing me to do this job without any benefit."
Mr Grant said there were three key values he hoped to be remembered for: honesty, hard-working and integrity.
He said he was always honest, even when he was telling people bad news.
One of the biggest tests came in mid-2016 when the NSW government announced they would ban greyhound racing the following year. By October the decision was reversed.
"The issue was twisted into something it wasn't and there has been a level of people who just never forgave us for that and the vitriol that has come and continues to come and what my family was exposed to... There were people with mental health problems threatening to skin my kids alive and hang their corpses on the front fence," Mr Grant said.
"It creates a horrible fear."
At home, Mr Grant's mother had just died suddenly at 64-years-old.
"I was trying to manage her estate, support my family. I had a lot going on. It was a crucial decision at a time I wasn't personally at my best. It was probably too much and there's only so many hours in the day," he said.
However, the Dubbo MP said he doesn't understand why even after the decision was reversed there has remained such a high level of anger towards him.
"It was a really hard time for a number of reasons, and a really unfair time. It was really un-Australian and it lowered my confidence in the community. That has dissipated and worn off but there are still a core group of haters out there," Mr Grant said.
It was over a cup of coffee that Mr Grant's political career began. A former police commander had suggested it to him and then at a cafe with some National Party members he was talked into it.
The first person he told was then-Dubbo MP Dawn Fardell.
"I was friends with her and I respected her. I said I wasn't running against her, I was running for Dubbo so the city could get a seat at the table," Mr Grant said.
Going into the role, he said there were no expectations.
"I got promoted day one to Parliamentary Secretary and then Minister, Deputy Premier. I had no ambition for that whatsoever, I was very happy to be the minister for Dubbo. But what happened ultimately is that it gave me quicker access to decision makers and an inside as to how government really works so I was able to manoeuvre Dubbo's needs and that's how we got so much," Mr Grant said.
"That's secret to all of my work. It's not about thinking you're the smartest guy in the room...it's how close your relationship is with the people who make decisions."
The Dubbo Hospital redevelopment will be one of the key pieces of infrastructure associated with Mr Grant, even after he retires from the job. When he started campaigning in 2010 he promised to bring new hospitals to Dubbo, Forbes and Parkes.
They were delivered in the first four years.
In October 2014 he was elected as Nationals leader and Deputy Premier. Mr Grant said there was a sense of pride across the community that it was their representative who held the role.
He's also held numerous portfolios from Minister for Police to Minister for Regional Infrastructure and Services.
As his political work comes to a close, Mr Grant said multiple people had told him his career had been remarkable.
He's met with leaders across the world, from the president of China to Angela Merkel in Germany.
"I've had meetings at the White House, worked with the FBI, Scotland Yard, Europol. The biggest players in media and business and sport, I know them all. I've had a hit of tennis with Rodger Federer, met famous actors, made a movie with Mel Gibson, had my own TV show: On the Lounge on Sky Racing. I've had my picture painted in the Archibald by Mark Horton. I've been in dressing rooms for State of Origins wins and seen Hawthorne sing their team song, played cricket on the Sydney Cricket Ground. I know Winx and Hugh Bowman very well," Mr Grant said.
"I'm not sure what more a political life could offer. I am genuinely very, very grateful for it. It's not lost on me for one second."
Mr Grant said he was very grateful to all the members of his community, even those who he had disagreed with.
"You cop a couple of scrapes bruises along the way but when you finish you hope people understand you did the best for them and hopefully did some good," he said.