Steven Joyce gives an emotional valedictory to the house.

Amid the laughter of Steven Joyce's rousing final sign off from Parliament came a moment that silenced the room.

Joyce, who became known as National's "Minister for Everything" and played the role of puppet master in NZ's past four General Elections, fought back tears on Tuesday.

He'd reached the line in his valedictory speech where he wanted to mention his children, Amelia and Thomas, who he said had only known their dad to be a minister.

CAMERON BURNELL/STUFF "He's going to have dad around some more," Steven Joyce said of his autistic son, holding back tears.

First he spoke of Amelia.

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"In 2011 my then four-year old daughter, who had friends around the house, wandered up to the TV which had the Rena footage on it, and turned around and said 'that's where my daddy lives'," he said with a smile.

Then he spoke of his autistic son Thomas.

"Tommy doesn't say anything, literally. He's what they call non-verbal autistic. He's eight years old, he doesn't have any vocabulary at all, but I know he likes having his dad around - he tells me with his laugh and with his eyes," said Joyce his voice cracking.

"And now he's going to have dad around some more."

GETTY During his time as a National minister, Steven Joyce gained a reputation as the clean-up man - the minister relied on to don the hi-vis and clean up a crisis.

THE LEGACY OF 'MR FIXIT'

Joyce has been at the centre of some of the biggest political stories of the decade.

iHis valedictory speech reflected on 15 years of political life where he unwittingly became an Eminemesque defendant and sex toy target.

This was a hard moment to forget: A woman hurled a sex toy at Steven Joyce, shouting "that's for raping our sovereignty". It was a TPP protest at Waitangi.

Joyce announced his resignation last month, shortly after a failed leadership bid to replace Bill English.

In front of a house full of dignitaries, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Bill English, former MP Murray McCully and media personalities including his former business partner Jeremy Corbett, Joyce told the House he wouldn't have pursued a Parliamentary career at all, if it hadn't been for the nudging of Key.

And Joyce's entry was unusual in that he was made a minister before he was even sworn in as an MP, and getting his head around meetings with officials was a learning curve.

GETTY Former Prime Minister John Key enjoys a laugh with MP Steven Joyce and then-Prime Minister Bill English prior to delivering his farewell speech at Parliament on Tuesday in Wellington.

"What I did learn quite quickly is officials have a meeting after the meeting where they go outside and discuss what they think the minister meant.

"Until they recognise you, you can sneak out your Senior Private Secretary's door and contribute to that discussion," he said to roars of laughter.

Perhaps playing to type, Joyce said "building roads was something I enjoyed immensely as Transport Minister".

And the Waterview Tunnel was one of his proudest achievements; specifically adding an extra lane on each side, to the inherited infrastructure project, and negotiating more than $1 billion off the initial total price.

But it would be hard for Joyce to sign off without addressing a now internationally-famous incident in which he copped a dildo to face from a TPP protester.

"We looked at it, and I thought to myself 'what do you say in these situations'.

"I said 'goodo' and then I looked at my colleague and said 'well, let's head off then'

"So as we walked away I said to Nathan Guy under my breath 'do you think the camera's picked that up?'

"He said "yeah I think so. Keep walking."

Joyce has been the party's mastermind campaign strategist since 2005. He entered Parliament in 2008 when National stormed back into power and led the party's winning campaigns in 2011 and 2014.

Over that time, he has been at the helm of some major moments in New Zealand political history.

The campaign to bring National back from the abyss almost put Don Brash into the ninth floor of the Beehive, but Joyce would not have to wait too long for a win.

By the time 2008 rolled round, a young firebrand financier would have risen to assume the leadership of National and would go on to hold an iron grip on power for the next nine years.

Joyce was an integral figure in the Key Government.

He earned the nickname "Mr Fixit" after being sent in to contain the pay debacle that became known as the Novopay scandal and headed the amalgamation of a number of ministries into uber-ministry The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Joyce has also held a raft of senior portfolios since he entered Parliament in 2008, including finance, transport, economic development and tertiary education, skills and employment.

Joyce paid special tribute to his family, Key and former Prime Minister Bill English.

And he had few regrets over his time in politics, including the international headlines he made - usually as part of British comedian John Oliver's Last Week Tonight show, where he gained notoriety for saying he believed National's use of the track "Eminemesque" in 2014 campaign advertisements was "pretty legal".