The late senator was described as a woman of conviction who stood against injustice, as her colleagues across the political divide paid their tributes.

Senators convened for a special sitting on Monday to speak on a condolence motion after the Victorian Labor senator was laid to rest last week, following her sudden death at 52 from a suspected heart attack in Melbourne on March 10.

Labor's leader in the Senate Penny Wong said the late senator was an extraordinary woman and a patriot "determined to serve her country".

"As the many tributes since her death have demonstrated, Senator Kitching was a parliamentarian who worked across the political spectrum, relentlessly pursuing what she believed was right," Senator Wong said.

"She believed in democracy and its values, including human rights, she worked to shine a light on abuses and corruption around the world."

Greens senator Janet Rice says the late senator's legacy would live on, speaking of Senator Kitching's personal advocacy for 30 people to leave Afghanistan.

"I know those 30 people that Kimberley advocated for will feel they owe their lives to Kimberley and will feel her loss immensely," she said.

Senator Kitching's husband Andrew Landeryou and her close friend and secretary of the Health Services Union Diana Asmar watched on from the public gallery as senators paid tribute.

Labor senator Katy Gallagher spoke of the impact the late senator had on her and reminisced about some of their first interactions together.

"Now I'm a teetotaller during sitting weeks and she is the only senator who has ever managed to convince me to have a drink on a sitting evening and ended up serving me my first ever martini in a very stylish martini glass," she said.

"She was truly shocked that I'd got this far through life without ever having one. She made a difference. She had an impact."

Labor senator Kristina Keneally used her speech to criticise those who "politicised" Senator Kitching's death after reports she was bullied emerged in the wake of her death.

"Those who use ... the grief caused by her death for purposes other than honouring her life and her work, will find no friend in me," she said.

Senators Wong, Keneally and Gallagher were named in the reports but have denied the allegations.

But Liberal senator James Paterson, who worked closely with Senator Kitching to lobby both parties to take a stronger stance on China, said the late senator confided in him "the ostracisation and exclusion she often experienced here in Canberra within her own party".

"Combined with the shift in the balance within the Victorian ALP and her unresolved preselection, she was not herself," he said.

"It is a concern to me that her friendships with Liberals, and our cooperation on national security matters has been alluded to as an explanation for her estrangement from some of her colleagues."

Over her six years in the upper house, Senator Kitching became known for her human rights advocacy, highlighting of China's rising influence and a bid for Australia to adopt targeted sanctions laws similar to the US Magnitsky Act.

It prompted an emotional Foreign Minister Marise Payne to hold up a gift from Senator Kitching - a book by Bill Browder who championed Magnitsky laws.

"The fact that she wanted to see other countries also adopt similar legislation - that she was talking to members of parliaments of other democracies about this - also speaks clearly to her commitment to human rights," she said.

Senator Payne also floated the idea of having a memorial at Parliament House for parliamentarians who die in office.

"Perhaps we might plant a white rose there for Senator Kitching if it comes to be in a garden," she said.

Condolences will continue in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Australian Associated Press