‘I am being bullied’: Kimberley Kitching made formal complaint before her death

Victorian Senator Kimberley Kitching, who tragically died last week at the age of 52 last week, had made a formal bullying complaint.

EXCLUSIVE

Victorian Senator Kimberley Kitching made a formal complaint of bullying before her death to a PwC consultant brought in to deliver training on “safe and respectful workplaces.”

The late senator raised the issue on November 5, 2021 during a closed-door meeting that was witnessed by a senior staff member in her office.

Before her death, Ms Kitching confirmed she had made the disclosure to PwC to news.com.au and it has also been confirmed by colleagues after her death.

“I am being bullied,’’ she said. She said the female employee from PwC then asked her if she would find the training “triggering”.

After she exited the meeting, Ms Kitching told other friends and colleagues that she had put her complaint on the record during the discussions.

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Kimberley Kitching.

Ms Kitching’s death has unleashed a torrent of ugly allegations that she was the target of “mean girls” in the Senate, ostracised and isolated by Labor Senate leader Penny Wong and others.

“Mean girls” was a term that Ms Kitching herself frequently used to describe the behaviour in the Senate to friends, colleagues and journalists.

Senator Wong has refused to “engage in commentary” about the allegations, but has said she “disagrees with them”.

“Senator Kitching has passed away and that was tragic and shocking and many in the Labor family are grieving and her loved ones are grieving,’’ Ms Wong said.

“I am simply not going to engage in commentary about some of the allegations which have been raised, even if I and others disagree with them.”

Labor Senator Katy Gallagher told the ABC: “Many of the assertions in that article are not true from my point of view, but I don’t think it is respectful for us to enter into commentary or disagreements about particular aspects of [the story] at this point in time.”

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong. Picture: David Mariuz/NCA NewsWire

In the midst of a power struggle over her preselection, Ms Kitching died from a suspected heart attack last week, after calling her husband from her car. An ambulance arrived but was unable to revive her.

On Friday, news.com.au revealed Ms Kitching’s complaints before her death included that she was kicked off the tactics committee of the Labor Party for spurious reasons, and had been frozen out from asking questions in the Senate for the past 12 months.

She had also complained of being taken off email distribution lists for the media lines of the day sent from the Labor leader’s office, and other frontbenchers had to intervene to send it to her via backchannels.

When she won a major human rights award for her campaign to introduce a Magnitsky Act so Australia could join its allies – the United Kingdom, United States and Canada – in imposing sanctions on human rights violators, the Labor Party had declined her funding for an economy class ticket to London. As a result, she agreed to pay for the flight herself.

Her supporters claimed “faceless men” in the Labor Party contributed to her stress in the days before her shock death.

Union boss Earl Setches, who attended the Wednesday morning Zoom meeting of the Victorian Right which declined to endorse her preselection, said he believed the Labor Party’s brutal preselection process had “killed her”.

“You’ve lost your job, publicly humiliated going through that whole process. Of course there were other health issues but Christ, it would have been enormous stress and strain on her,’’ he said.

Ms Kitching in the Senate chamber. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Victorian Labor Party has been entangled in legal action to overturn leader Anthony Albanese’s decision to intervene in the Victorian ALP amid the damaging fallout of the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal.

“She’s absolutely been bullied. She was just alone,’’ Mr Setches said.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten wept live on air over the death of Ms Kitching last week, blaming the stress of her preselection battle as a contributing factor in her death and wondering if she would have been better off if “she never went near politics.”

“I am not a coroner. I can’t tell you why this woman of 52 was taken from us. But I have no doubt that the stress of politics in the machinations in the back rooms had its toll,’’ Mr Shorten said.

“She’s a very strong person. She could give as good as she could get. But you take it away, you take it all home with you don’t you? And that’s not just a politician. It doesn’t matter what line of work politics isn’t special in that way, but it’s not different either. Stress is like invisible coats of paint. It’s got to be having its impact and she was greatly stressed.

“Yeah, there were machinations and arguments going on. That does happen. That’s not unique. But we have a woman who’s 52, who’s pulled over by the side of the road and died unexpectedly. It’s shocking. It’s terrible.”

Ms Kitching had lost weight in recent years and was suffering from a thyroid condition as she battled to resolve her preselection.

Mr Shorten has expressed regret at encouraging her to enter politics.

“You can never dial forward and predict what’s going to happen,’’ he said.

“But you do wonder if she would have been better off never going near politics.”

Ms Kitching’s legacy includes the passage of the Magnitsky laws that are now being used by Australia to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs to punish Vladimir Putin’s grotesque invasion of Ukraine.

Forensic, tenacious, tough and unrelenting in her Senate estimates performances, her pursuits ruffled feathers.

It was her questioning that exposed the fact that Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate had purchased Cartier watches for executives, prompting the Prime Minister’s over-reaction on the floor of parliament.

Born in Brisbane, Ms Kitching was the daughter of Bill and Leigh Kitching and a childhood friend of Bill Shorten’s wife, Chloe Shorten.

Ms Kitching was awarded the prestigious Magnitsky Human Rights Award last year.

Originally published as ‘I am being bullied’: Kimberley Kitching made formal complaint before her death