Federal Labor is mourning the death of "great Labor man" Wayne Goss.
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Mr Goss, who in 1989 became Queensland's first Labor Premier in 32 years, died on Sunday night after experiencing ill health in recent years and undergoing surgery for brain tumours.
He was 63.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said at a media conference on Monday that Mr Goss was a "great servant" of the Labor Party and Queensland.
In an earlier statement, Mr Shorten paid particular tribute to Mr Goss's "drought-breaking electoral triumph", which he said ended the "malaise and corruption that had eaten away at Queensland's democracy in the final stretch of 32 years of Conservative rule".
"The Goss government rebuilt Queensland: restoring fairness and transparency to the electoral system, bringing in merit-based appointments for the public service and implementing many of the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption," Mr Shorten said.
"Goss' reforms modernised Queensland: decriminalising homosexuality, creating new national parks, preventing logging and abolishing the anachronistic Imperial Honours system."
Former treasurer Wayne Swan, who was campaign director for Mr Goss' election victories in 1989 and 1992, said in a statement he had lost a close friend, and Queensland had lost one of its finest leaders.
"Wayne changed Queensland – the state we love – for the better, and he dragged it into the sunlight after 32 years in the darkness," Mr Swan said.
"Wayne was a leader of deep integrity, clarity of thought and discipline. But above all of this, Wayne and his family were close, personal friends and I will miss him immensely."
Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, who served as chief of staff to Mr Goss when he was opposition leader then premier, said in a statement that "Queensland has lost a great man, a great leader and one whom history will conclude was its greatest post-war Premier".
He said Mr Goss changed the face of Queensland and had he chosen a private instead of a public life Queensland "would be a vastly different place".
"Had there been no Wayne Goss, who knows how long the state would have had to endure the most corrupt electoral system in the country's history?," the statement said.
"Wayne Goss through the sheer power of his personality, an extraordinary determination, a deep, a driving sense of justice that began with his early days at the aboriginal legal service, and a profound resonance with the people of Queensland, changed all that.
"He managed to triumph despite the gerrymander, and then destroy the gerrymander altogether, and for all time.
"No one else could have done it. He did. And it took more than 50 per cent of the primary vote to do so. An extraordinary political accomplishment."
Federal Liberal MP for Brisbane, Teresa Gambaro, also paid tribute to Mr Goss, saying in a statement that her family knew the former premier for more than 30 years.
"Despite the fact that he came from a different side of politics, I was always impressed by his unwavering commitment in pursuing what was best for Queensland and I found that more often than not he and I had very similar views in this regard. It was also my great privilege to have Wayne as a constituent," Ms Gambaro said.
"There has been much talk lately about the nation losing a giant with the passing of Gough Whitlam. Sadly today it was Queensland's turn to lose a giant as well.
"Wayne once said that he hoped he had left Queensland a better place. For me there is no doubt that he did, not just through his contributions in political life, but also through his work in business and the education sectors, as well as with the indigenous community throughout the state."
