Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells lashes her party‘s own ‘mean girls’

A veteran Liberal senator has claimed the “mean girls” culture within the ALP also extended to her own party under Scott Morrison.

Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (Photo by Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Veteran Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has unleashed on her own party claiming the “mean girls” culture within the ALP also extended to the Liberal Party under Scott Morrison.

Speaking during an emotional tribute to Senator Kimberley Kitching, she detailed the personal toll of her own preselection battle.

The NSW Senator was dumped to an unwinnable position on the party’s Senate ticket following a Liberal Party preselection vote on Saturday, bringing a close to her political career.

“Much has been written about the treatment that Kimberley received from what the media has described as the ‘mean girls’,’’ Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

“The concept of mean girls is not confined to one political party. Often we discussed the slings and arrows with preselections, particularly as we were both outspoken and not constrained by prevalent groupthink within our political parties.”

Senator Kitching privately described Labor Senate leader Penny Wong, Senator Kristina Kenneally and Senator Katy Gallagher.

The women have rejected any allegation of bullying as untrue and the epithet as “demeaning”.

The Liberal senator claimed the “mean girls” culture within the ALP also extended to her own party under Scott Morrison.

Senator Wong said today she would not respond to “anger with anger” and Senator Gallagher said she was reflecting on their relationship. Senator Keneally said the late Victorian Senator was not a shrinking violet.

“I empathised with Kimberley about the bitter internal factional fights within our respective political parties. We both had factional enemies who desperately wanted to see us defeated, and they worked very hard at it,‘’ Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

“I am sorry, Kimberley, that you were not able to withstand the pressure. I have no doubts that the stress of fighting for your political career took its toll and led to your death. Your death put much into context for me.

“It made me realise that all the stress associated with factional warfare is not worth the toll that it takes on health and family. I know how hard it has been for my own husband, John, himself a cancer survivor, who has stood by me through all the slings and arrows of internecine factional and interfactional skulduggery. So, Andrew, whilst John and I can walk away, you will be left to walk alone.”

Senator Wong said today she would not respond to “anger with anger” following controversy after Kimberly Kitching’s death.

“Like Kimberley, I too had experienced the Liberal Party sisterhood. For example, when I appeared on the ABC Four Corners program on 9 November 2020, I made various comments about values and beliefs, but I also made the following comments about integrity. When we sign up to this job, we sign up for public service, we sign up as service to the Australian public.”

During the ABC Four Corners program, the NSW senator criticised Liberal MPs who had conducted sexual relationships with their staff.

“It’s not appropriate. And we’ve seen instances of that happened, happen and different leaders of both political persuasion have taken the, have taken appropriate action,‘’ she said.

“As I said, it’s notwithstanding the different pressures that do exist in this place, we have to maintain a high level of conduct.”

The NSW Senator said her remarks were “fair, neutral and appropriate comments at the time.”

“Yet, after I made those comments, not one coalition female supported me—not one of them,‘’ she said.

“Not one had the gumption to even say, ‘Well done for speaking out.’ Sadly, I note my female coalition colleagues would privately whinge and complain, but there had been no fortitude or appetite to stand up publicly and say what needed to be said. I expect they were concerned about being summoned for a fireside chat with the threat of demotion for breaching groupthink.

“I shared my own experiences with Kimberley. I understood how Kimberley felt, having been treated the way she was,‘’ she said.

Labor Senator Deb O‘Neil said Senator Kitching was “bedazzling” and her loyalty to friends was unquestionable.

“What a woman,‘’ she said.

“Kimberly was a patriot. A woman of courage, capacity and integrity.”

Kimberley Kitching during her time as a Labor Senator.

Bill Shorten speaks at the funeral for Senator Kimberley Kitching.

Liberal Senator James Paterson said he thought of Senator Kitching as “a friend” and the impact of her troubles within the Labor Party were apparentl before her death.

“There is no doubt in my mind that she was under significant pressure over the past few months. She confided in me about the ostracisation and exclusion she often experienced here in Canberra within her own party,‘’ he said.

“Combined with the shift in the balance within the Victorian ALP and her unresolved preselection, she was not herself, something that many of her friends discussed in the last few months.
“Given that her friendship with me and other Liberals has been cited as a reason why she was distrusted by some of her own colleagues, I feel duty bound, on the pain of misleading the parliament, to state that she never – not once – inappropriately shared with me internal Labor Party tactics and strategy.

“Nor do I share the view, expressed by some commentators on the left and the right, that she was somehow not really a committed member of the Labor cause, that she was somehow a closet Liberal.

“On the contrary, from what I observed, she was passionately, tribally, Labor.”