So, after 10 years as Community and Public Sector Union regional secretary, Vince McDevitt says it's time to go.

While the union's many thousands of members in the ranks of the ACT Public Service will be sorry to see him go, there are some current and former figures in government ranks who might not be sorry to see the back of McDevitt.

He is best known as the public face of the long battle by prison guards at the Canberra jail against the ACT government's ambitions for a needle exchange there, an unfulfilled wish for ACT Labor and the Greens since the days of Jon Stanhope.

Like many of us, McDevitt says he "over it", but maintains his members working at the Alexander Maconochie Centre have been right all along.

"On the face of it, you'd think 'why not' but its only when you start listening to our members who work in the prison, you start to understand the difficulty of implementing it in the prison environment," he says.

"We've worked with the government over the years and we've certainly been at loggerheads from time-to-time."

But McDevitt does not want his tenure defined by the AMC needles issue.

There have been other battles; the brutal public service cuts after the notorious 2006 structural review, the fight against Commonwealth-style efficiency dividend cuts and the struggle against privatization of Calvary Hospital.

"The union is always of the view, that public services should be delivered by public servants," he says.

The thing that makes him most proud though is the ACT Government public servants' enterprise agreement; the best in the business, he reckons.

"The ACT government agreement, I believe, is the best agreement the CPSU has got with any employer," he says.

"The pay in the ACT public service is above the median pay across the Commonwealth public service, so we're sitting pretty well pay-wise and we have the best job security for our members ever.

"You've got to make sure that you're not being unreasonable but you have to keep the bastards honest too."

The 51-year-old is born-and-bred Canberra, his parents still live in Tuggeranong, and he says that he is seeking a quieter life back where it all began for him: organizing in the federal public service.

He hopes the new gig will allow he and his partner to spend some more time in the garden and the kitchen.

"I'm going back in at the federal level, they could probably use another good soldier in the trenches, they've been under fire for years," Mr McDevitt said.

"I'm going back to being an organise, back where it all began, because what I found over the years is the further I got away with direct contact with the members and the delegates, it wasn't as enjoyable.

"It's a tough gig, and after 10 years I wanted a change and I wanted 2017 to be different for me.

"It's been very enjoyable, an absolute privilege, but by gee, you should see the before-and-after photographs."