Text messages used to accuse Kimberley Kitching of disloyalty revealed

The text messages a cabinet minister leaked to Labor to accuse Kimberley Kitching of disloyalty have been revealed.

The text messages that Liberal frontbencher Linda Reynolds leaked to the Labor Party to accuse the late Senator Kimberley Kitching of disloyalty have been revealed, outlining the secret machinations that led to her dumping from the ALP’s tactics committee.

The text messages Ms Kitching exchanged with the cabinet minister were sent on May 25, 2021 and leaked by the Liberal Senator to the Labor Party just weeks later.

They centre on claims that Ms Kitching provided a vague warning to Ms Reynolds that Labor was planning to target her - claims Ms Kitching denied in writing before her death.

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Senator Kimberley Kitching. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In June 2021, under aggressive questioning in Senate estimates, Ms Reynolds publicly suggested in Hansard that she was warned by a mystery Labor senator about a planned political attack by Ms Wong and Senator Katy Gallagher.

During a closed-door meeting afterwards, multiple sources have confirmed she briefed Ms Wong and Ms Gallagher on the following texts. That briefing then led to Ms Kitching’s suspension from the party’s tactics committee.

“I have reflected often on your warning to me in Feb on what Penny was about to unleash and your genuine concern – I must confess it is impossible to reconcile with your approach since,’’ Ms Reynolds wrote on May 5.

At 2:49pm, Ms Kitching responded: “I had to ask questions because they were assigned to me. I am the shadow assistant minister in your area. They were not written by me at all. I am very happy to discuss this in person and I would like to.”

The text exchange between Kimberley Kitching and Linda Reynolds.

Ms Reynolds has always taken that reply to imply Ms Kitching was effectively confirming the “warning” had happened.

However, before her death Ms Kitching insisted she had no idea what Ms Reynolds was referring to when she received the message. She said the “dates didn’t add up” over when she was accused of leaking information.

“In one of the messages, she claimed I warned her about what ‘Penny was about to unleash’. I didn’t, and still don’t know what on earth she is talking about,’’ Ms Kitching wrote in June 2021 in a letter that emerged after her death.

“It was the first message that she sent me, looking back it appears she may have planned on making the claims she subsequently did.”

She denied she warned Ms Reynolds about Ms Wong, who herself confirmed that Labor’s tactics committee had not discussed the matter Ms Reynolds believed the warning was about.

Linda Reynolds. Picture: NCA NewsWire

In an interview on 2GB radio last week, Ms Reynolds confirmed that the person who gave her the vague warning that Ms Wong would “unleash” on her was Ms Kitching. She refused to say whether she had showed the texts to Ms Wong or briefed the Labor Party on their content for legal reasons.

However, multiple sources have confirmed this was the case, and Ms Kitching was told that the text messages’ content was described to Ms Wong.

In the text exchange, Ms Reynolds told Ms Kitching she wasn’t ready to talk.

“I will reflect. I am not sure I am ready to discuss it,” she wrote.

Ms Kitching replied: “I understand. I really do. And I know you must be angry, hurt and sad.”

Ms Reynolds said: “And my health has taken a permanent battering...”

In response, Ms Kitching wrote: “I know. Well, I know what I have read. And that should not happen to anyone – to have their health compromised by their work.”

On June 4, 2021, Ms Kitching told Ms Reynolds, “Your hair looks good!”

Ms Reynolds thanked her. Two days later she revealed the text exchange to Ms Wong in a closed-door meeting with Ms Gallagher, and Minister for Social Services Anne Ruston there as a witness.

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Confronted by the texts after they were leaked to Ms Wong and Ms Gallagher, Ms Kitching insisted she didn’t know what Ms Reynolds was talking about.

“Simply put, it is not possible to divulge information to anyone about a matter of which I had no knowledge,” Ms Kitching wrote in a June letter to Senator Kristina Kenneally outlining her defence against the claim.

“Moreover, it is not possible to divulge a secret plan which did not actually exist. It has not been Senator Wong’s practice to ­divulge her secret plans, if she ever has any, to me.

“I am not in the habit of confiding with Senator Wong either. In any event, Senator Wong has rebutted any delusional claim that there was any secret plan.”

But the letter was never sent, emerging only after her death. She did take the correspondence, however, to a meeting in June with the Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles.

Speaking on Nine’s Today, former Labor leader Bill Shorten said he had never called for an inquiry into Ms Kitching’s bullying claims and it was now time to move on.

“I have at no point advocated for an inquiry. We had the funeral on Monday. It was quite an extraordinary event,’’ he said.

“I’m a very big friend of Kimberley’s. It’s been a tough week. For me, I want her remembered for being the fierce person she was. I’m just going to now grieve and try to come to terms with the gap which is in the life of my family and for the people who knew her and loved her.”

Originally published as Text messages used to accuse Kimberley Kitching of disloyalty revealed