[16] Thus Carr reluctantly agreed to become Leader of the Opposition,[8] as revealed in his diary entries from the time:[17] I spent today like a doomed man, taking phone calls and drafting a statement, still saying to the press I wasn't shifting.

Bob Carr however did express his frustration with the Hewson attack in his diary: "What a business to be in where your private life gets blasted all over the media…In the middle of an assault like this one feels crushed; you want to crouch at home; you wonder why friends don’t ring".

[citation needed] Carr's election policies had also included commitments to protect 90,000 hectares (220,000 acres) of old-growth forest and wilderness areas through a string of new national parks.

[citation needed] The initiative was supported by a A$6 million forestry restructuring package to build a modern mill and provide a 20-year guarantee of alternative timber.

[24] In its first term, the government banned the removal of old-growth vegetation from farmlands and introduced pricing for rural water and an environmental allocation to the state's river systems.

[citation needed] In 2003 Carr launched the building sustainability index (BASIX) which mandated reductions in energy and water use of up to 40 percent in every new dwelling built after July 2004.

[citation needed] Carr argued that this created what he called: "the most comprehensive tort reform that any government has developed ... at the expense of the plaintiff lawyers who had fed on a culture of rorts and rip-offs".

However the fact that the law effectively made it impossible to claim for any injury worth less than around $60,000 was criticised by New South Wales Chief Justice James Spigelman and others.

[32]As a result of a 1999 drug summit the Carr cabinet introduced Australia's first medically supervised injecting room for heroin users, located in King's Cross.

Other reforms included the introduction of drug courts and a voluntary diversion program that allows magistrates to refer offenders to treatment rather than impose prison sentences.

[29] During his time as opposition leader, Carr had backed a motion by independent parliamentarian John Hatton in May 1994 to establish a Royal Commission into corruption in the NSW Police.

[38] He received credit for the increase in the number and size of the state's national parks,[18] while criticism was made about rail transport which recorded a period of poor on-time running and a damaging industrial dispute in 2004.

Carr wrote in The Australian that, "if the public believed the executive arm of government were stifling freedoms, Australia slipping behind other democracies, there would have been a decided shove towards a human rights act".

[44] Carr took up the issue of obesity and argued that chain restaurants should be forced by law to put calorie measurements next to menu items, that trans fats be banned as in some US states and food manufacturers be made to reduce salt content.

[citation needed] In October 2005 Carr became a part-time consultant for Macquarie Bank, advising the company on policy, climate change, renewables and strategic issues with a focus on the United States and the People's Republic of China.

In April 2013, Fairfax journalist Philip Dorling identified Carr from a searchable database of declassified US State Department diplomatic cables as having criticised the Whitlam Government and provided information on internal Labor Party politics during discussions with the American consul-general in Sydney during the early 1970s.

"[53] On 2 March 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that Carr would be nominated to fill a casual vacancy in the Australian Senate caused by the resignation of Mark Arbib.

[62] Carr advocated adoption by the UN of a global Arms Trade Treaty to track and reduce the supply of weapons to rogue states or terrorist groups.

[63] Carr secured Australian Government support for abstention on a motion before the UN General Assembly to grant observer state status to the Palestinian Authority.

[66] In January 2013, in a joint communique with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Carr called for US leadership in resuming direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

[67] The communique also noted that both countries had voted to abstain on the UN motion on Palestinian status and that both viewed Israeli settlements on the West Bank as illegal under international law.

[67] Closer to home, Carr worked to build stronger relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), holding in-country talks with all ten member states, twice attending the East Asia Summit and repeatedly emphasizing Australia's interest in regional convergence and co-operation.

[70] Carr urged the Myanmar Government to continue its progress towards democracy, while welcoming the release of political prisoners and commitments to address ongoing ethnic and religious violence.

[75] On the first of three visits to China in May 2012 Carr faced questions from Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who expressed concern about Australia's blocking of Huawei Technologies in its bid to supply equipment for the National Broadband Network, and about the November 2011 decision to have US Marines rotationally deployed in Darwin.

"[78]Carr returned to China with Prime Minister Gillard in April 2013 for the annual Boao Forum for Asia, with a focus on strengthening bilateral relations.

At the opening Carr emphasised trade issues, highlighting Chinese investment in Australia and saying the new consulate would assist Australian firms in establishing a presence in western China.

[86] Australia's foreign aid for the Syrian crisis was increased to more than $100 million, focusing on shelter, medical support and child protection for refugees fleeing to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

In the absence of a ceasefire or UNSC action on Syria, Carr's plan received international support including from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Arab League and leaders at the 2013 G20 Summit.

[90] After his resignation, Bob Carr accepted the position of Director, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology, Sydney and Carr also accepted a professorial fellowship with the University of Sydney Southeast Asia Centre as a Professorial Fellow, and in May 2014 became head of the Australia-China Relations Institute, a think-tank at UTS established with a donation from Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire with links to the Chinese Communist Party.

[101] Carr is the author of several books, including Thoughtlines (Viking, 2002), My Reading Life (Penguin, 2008), and Diary of a Foreign Minister (2014), which received a mixed reception.