Penny Wong issues tribute to her father Francis Wong after his death

Penny Wong has issued a heartfelt tribute to her father after he passed away on Tuesday.

The Foreign Affairs minister announced the death of her dad Francis Wong Yit Shing late on Tuesday evening, saying he ‘passed peacefully’.

‘In his final days, he was surrounded by his loving family,’ she said.

‘We will all miss him. We are grateful for his full life, for the strength of his love for us all, for the opportunities he gave us and for the values he instilled.

‘We deeply appreciate the staff at The Alfred who have shown us so much compassion.

‘We are comforted by the many friends and colleagues who have reached out with heartfelt messages of support.’

Ms Wong last year opened up about how her father left his hometown of Sandakan in Malaysia and migrated Down Under, after most of her grandmother’s family died during World War II.

She said Australia’s Colombo Plan scholarship allowed her father to migrate to Australia and study architecture at Adelaide University, saying the opportunity defined his life.

Ms Wong last year opened up about how her father left his hometown of Sandakan in Malaysia and migrated Down Under, after most of her grandmother’s family died during World War II

‘It meant he could climb out of the poverty he experienced as a child,’ she said.

‘It meant doors opened that would have otherwise been jammed firmly shut.

‘It meant he could come to Australia – a very different Australia from what we know today.’

After meeting his Australian wife, Ms Wong’s father moved back to work in Malaysia in Kota Kinabalu where Ms Wong was born.

In the past, Ms Wong has opened up about the racism she experienced when she first moved to Australia as a child in 1976.

Ms Wong was keen to praise Australia’s education system and credited the country’s university opportunities for her family’s ascension from poverty.

‘The value of that education has never left him. He always told me: ”They can take everything away from you, but they can’t take your education”,’ she said.

Ms Wong (pictured right) with father Francis Wong (pictured centre-left) and family in Malaysia, Ms Wong still has strong emotional ties with her father’s home country