A tennis legend, a former footballer and a highly-successful businessman farewelled parliament on Thursday morning.
Three retiring government MPs - Liberal John Alexander and Nationals Damian Drum and Ken O'Dowd - gave valedictory speeches, marking their time in their respective offices with humour, wit and an overall sense of positivity.
Mr Alexander, a three-time Australian Open semi-finalist, said a "strange series of events" saw him win Bennelong at the 2010 federal election and hold it through five election campaigns.
"I've often been asked what's the difference between my first career as a tennis player and (politics) - my quick response is the game of tennis starts at love-all," he said.
The 70-year-old brought the seat back to the coalition in 2010, after former Prime Minister John Howard was beaten by Labor in 2007.
Mr Alexander called on parliament to lift its standards and serve Australia.
"If this place could agree on common goals and we combined to bring all that we have to achieve these goals on behalf of the Australian people, maybe we could earn their trust and respect," he said.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who was publicly outed as a regular to Mr Alexander's Thursday morning tennis matches along with Labor MP Peter Khalil and Nationals MP Kevin Hogan, popped into the chamber to pay his respects.
But while he thanked him for his representation, Mr Albanese seemed more appreciative of the former world number eight for "teaching me how to do a kick second serve".
Meanwhile, Mr Drum - a former Geelong player and Fremantle coach - thanked his Nationals colleagues for a six-year stint that could "never be classified as boring".
"This team has the capacity to turn an otherwise quiet and uneventful day into something a little bit more frenetic, complicated and may I say a little bit amusing as a workplace," he said.
"I know the Nats are far from perfect, but we know our people and we work hard for our people."
He said his proudest achievement was supporting the Murray Darling Medical Schools program, addressing a shortage of doctors in his electorate of Nicholls.
And Mr O'Dowd - who Minister for Resources Keith Pitt noted was better known as "Kenny" to his friends and "The Bulldog" to parliament - admitted he'd never thought about being politician until a preselected candidate withdrew at the last minute in 2010.
"I was in the party room of the local branch, and we were told to get a candidate quick time - when the music stopped I was left holding the ball," he said.
The Flynn MP thanked all former prime ministers and Nationals leaders from his time in office.
"You've all done an outstanding job - well done, what you've done, I wouldn't like to do your job for all the coal in Queensland," he said.
In keeping with the bipartisan spirit of the morning, Labor MP Jason Clare observed it would be a struggle to find an enemy of any of the trio on either side of politics.
