By Tess Ikonomou in Canberra

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten has given a heartfelt farewell to federal parliament after almost two decades, while speaking of the “unfinished business” Australia has to settle. 

Addressing the house on Thursday afternoon, Mr Shorten paid tribute to his “greatest fortune” wife Chloe, and their three children Rupert, Georgette, and Clementine.

“I love you with all my heart,” he said.

“You’ve been conscripts to the rallies, the speeches, the branch meetings … always quick to lift me up when I’m down, and even quicker to bring me back to work when I’ve needed it.

“You’ve given me so much more than I can ever give you.”

His family, including twin brother Robert, were on the floor of the lower house during the speech.

NDIS advocates including Paralympian Kurt Fearnley, staffers, and former WA premier Mark McGowan also watched on.

Mr Shorten has held the Victorian seat of Maribyrnong since 2007, which he won as part of Kevin Rudd’s landslide election victory.

He will retire from politics in February next year, when he will become vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra.

The former national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union went on to become Labor’s leader after the party’s loss at the federal election in 2013.

In 2016, he won 14 seats back for Labor, but that wasn’t enough to form government.

Three years later he stood down as Labor leader after a shock election loss to Scott Morrison, and was replaced by Anthony Albanese as opposition leader.

Pointing to democracy being under threat on a global-scale, Mr Shorten said the nation had to “jealously guard and nourish our democracy, safeguard our pluralist society”.

He said parliament had a responsibility to ensure that the extremes of the left and the right did not “set the terms of engagement of ideas in this country”.

Defending the political-centre, Mr Shorten said you could still be a reformer and radical in ambition to get things done.

“Being a moderate is an acknowledgement that Australians hold broad and diverse and competing views, but the majority in the middle should never be held hostage to the few on the zealous fringe,” he said.

Mr Shorten said the wellbeing of people living with a disability was the issue closest to his heart.

“I thought I had seen hardship and disadvantage, but nothing prepared me for the way that literally thousands, hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability and the people who love them were sentenced to a second-class life of lesser opportunity,” he said.

Mr Shorten said Australia had “unfinished business” in a number of areas, including with Indigenous Australians following the defeat of the voice to parliament referendum.

He also referenced climate change, tax reform and the “disproportionate” burden of tax reform.

Finishing his speech, Mr Shorten received a standing ovation as he embraced his family on the floor of the chamber with MPs on both sides congratulating him for his public service.

The prime minister said Mr Shorten had so much to be proud of, and would continue to serve the community.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Shorten would be a loss to the Labor Party and movement.