Labor elder John Faulkner called time on his 25 year political career with characteristic directness.
"It's over and it's time to go," he declared.
Senator Faulkner has announced he will step down early next year, bringing forward his planned retirement in 2017.
When he leaves, Labor will lose one of its most experienced and respected parliamentarians. He's been a key link to the Hawke and Keating years and a philosophical compass who ceaselessly pushed for reform of the party.
Labor will also miss its chief interrogator in the Senate. Senator Faulkner has long had a fearsome reputation as one of the most devastatingly effective performers in parliament and committee hearings.
The NSW senator said he owed Labor everything, but knew when his time was up.
He will step away completely from politics but remain an active rank-and-file member of the party.
"I am a Labor loyalist," he said.
Labor colleagues offered tributes to the man who served as a minister under three prime ministers, and leaves as the "father of the Senate".
Opposition leader Bill Shorten described the 60-year-old as a lion, a fearless estimates examiner and a "relentless pursuer of reform".
Senator Faulkner left Australia in a better place than he found it, he said.
"While ministers and departmental secretaries may not miss his formidable, forensic questioning, we will certainly miss his invaluable wisdom and his indomitable spirit," Mr Shorten said.
Senator Faulkner's upper house colleague, Penny Wong, said he was one of the outstanding parliamentarians of his generation.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Senator Faulkner was one of the greats of modern Labor.
The former teacher started work as a full-time ALP official in 1980, before entering the Senate in 1989 and going on to hold five ministerial portfolios.
Senator Faulkner listed debates about Mabo, the privatisation of Telstra, the GST, Wik and the Rudd government's dumped carbon emissions trading scheme as the most important of his career.
However, he declined to nominate the proudest moments of his long career.
"I will let others judge the ups and downs of my career in this place," he said.
He also refused to divulge his role in the 2010 leadership coup, when on the night of June 23 he acted as a neutral observer in the meeting between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
"I at least have a reputation for not breaching confidences - I don't intend to start on the day I'm retiring," he said.
His place in the Senate is expected to be filled by ALP national president Jenny McAllister, who in July was preselected for the 2016 election.
JOHN FAULKNER'S CAREER IN PARLIAMENT
* Entered the Senate in 1989
* Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Minister for Veterans' Affairs 1993-1994
* Minister for Sport and Environment 1994-1996
* Special Minister of State 2007-2009
* Minister for Defence 2009-2010.
* Labor leader in the Senate 1993-2004.
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