Joe Hockey leaves a large hole in the Parliament.

He is a big personality, who laughs easily and is great company.

When on song he was a fine retail politician, and he tried to make changes he believed were in the best interests of the nation.

In the House of Representatives he could be great on his feet, in an age when there are few star turns and too little humour.

His own list of achievements is long and includes tough decisions like ending corporate welfare.

He says his proudest achievement is the Medical Research Future Fund, which he predicts "will dramatically change the lives of Australians and people around the world forever".

But it is unfinished business. The income flow needed to make it something of substance is yet to be found.

It stands as a metaphor for Mr Hockey and the way his political career ended. It didn't quite match expectations.

While there is much to be proud of in his 19 years as a politician, Mr Hockey will no doubt leave feeling that there was more to do. That, although he achieved much, this is not the exit he would have hoped for.

'Big bear of a man' won respect of parliament

Unfortunately it is often only when they bid farewell that politicians finally get to hear kind words uttered about them in the chamber. And there were plenty of signs today that the former treasurer is held in very high regard by his peers.

The first was that most of the seats on both sides of the House were full for his valedictory, the second that so many wanted to speak - perhaps the best index of how an MP is regarded by his or her peers.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten summed it up well when he said that the standing ovation Mr Hockey received was something he should cherish.

"Respect can't be given by position or a title," Mr Shorten said.

Mr Hockey arrived 19 years ago and showed such great promise that he was a minister in Howard Government two years later.

The public warmed to him, particularly in his partnership with Kevin Rudd on Channel 7's Sunrise program.

When Mr Howard wanted to soften the hard edges of Workchoices he put Mr Hockey in charge of workplace relations, saying he was a "big bear of a man".

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the retiring former treasurer had the respect of the Parliament. ( ABC News: Nick Haggarty )

'All big lives have large achievements, failings'

It is hard to credit now, but in the 2009 Liberal leadership spill Tony Abbott was the outsider and Mr Hockey was the most fancied contender.

It was a tweet asking people for guidance on what he should do on in the battle over climate change policy that cruelled his chances, reinforcing the view among some of his colleagues that he did not have what it took to lead the party.

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His chances of leading were destroyed forever by the 2014 budget, one that Mr Hockey believes was necessary, saying the failure was on the politics and not the policy.

He is entitled to his view of history, but many would say some of the policy was as underdone as the politics.

Yet the intention was clear: that education, health and welfare have to be paid for. That the nation cannot borrow forever and that borrowing is "intergenerational theft" that forces future generations to pay for today's benefits.

Clearly there was more that he wanted to do and today he had a list that included means-testing all welfare, curbing super tax concessions, cutting taxes and even imposing a traffic levy on Kingsford Smith airport to pay for Badgerys Creek airport and transport in Western Sydney.

All big lives have large achievements and, often, large failings.

It was something recognised by Theodore Roosevelt in a speech he gave before he became the 26th president of the United States, and it was where Mr Hockey ended his final speech to Parliament.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs – even though checked by failure – than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, for they dwell in the grey twilight that knows neither victory or defeat," he said.