Purple to remember Vic MP Fiona Richardson

The family of Victorian politician Fiona Richardson has asked people to wear purple at her state memorial service - the colour used in the campaign against family violence.

Ms Richardson was the minister for family violence prevention and died aged 50 on Wednesday, just a day after revealing she had been diagnosed with multiple tumours.

"We'd like to request that people wear something purple," a family statement read.

The family also asked people to make a donation to the Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre or the Luke Batty Foundation instead of floral tributes.

Despite her publicised battle with breast cancer in 2013 and announcement more than two weeks ago of a serious illness - revealed on Tuesday to be cancer - Ms Richardson's shock death rocked parliament.

Premier Daniel Andrews said Ms Richardson's greatest legacy was the royal commission into family violence.

"(Her work) has saved lives and will continue to save lives into the future," he said.

Ms Richardson "was a person of conviction, of character, of extraordinary composure" and could never be replaced, Mr Andrews also said.

Ms Richardson was a Labor right factional leader who joined the party in 1991 and won the inner-north electorate of Northcote in 2006.

Her state memorial service in her Northcote electorate will be held on August 31.