Pattern of Kimberley Kitching hostilities sank to ‘grotesque, foul’ gibes
More accounts of hostile behaviour by senior Labor figures towards senator Kimberley Kitching have emerged in the wake of her death.
“If you had children, you might understand,” Penny Wong shot at Kimberley Kitching during a heated meeting attended by senior Labor politicians in 2019.
The group was debating a Greens Senate motion that supported school students who engaged in “civil disobedience” at climate emergency protests.
During the meeting, Kitching argued the motion was an exercise in virtue signalling and that some parents would prefer their children to be in class during school hours.
Wong’s response to Kitching stung.
“Well, if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency,” Wong reportedly said.
Those close to Kitching say it was particularly hurtful because the painful truth was that Kitching had desperately wanted children, she loved children, but had been unable to have any.
“The children thing was particularly grotesque, it was just foul,” one of Kitching’s closest confidants said. “It was brutal.”
Word of the exchange leaked to the ABC but the subsequent media report did not name Wong as the person who uttered the incendiary remark. Wong was only identified in journalist Samantha Maiden’s 2020 book, Party Animals.
The gibe was part of a pattern of hostile behaviour by senior Labor figures towards Kitching that has emerged in the wake of her death from a sudden heart attack on March 10.
The Australian on Wednesday revealed Kitching had been ostracised by her senior Labor colleagues who dumped her from Labor’s tactics committee meetings, froze her out and blocked her from asking regular questions during Question Time.
Labor’s senior leadership team refused to listen to Kitching’s explanation that she had not forewarned Linda Reynolds about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation. Instead, she was wrongly accused of leaking and the Liberal minister’s claim was accepted as gospel.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese also demoted Kitching from her beloved portfolio of assistant spokeswoman for government accountability in January 2021 and she was then removed from the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration in October 2021.
Albanese ruled out an investigation into how Kitching was treated in the months before she passed away, claiming it was disrespectful to do so after she had died.
This is despite the fact Kitching had complained about her treatment to deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, specifically in relation to the decision to dump her from the tactics committee meetings.
As The Australian reported on Wednesday, despite Kitching’s pleas for Marles to sort it out, the situation remained unresolved.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Kitching had also confided in her about her treatment.
She said the pair would have a cup of tea and maybe a toasted sandwich after a particularly tough day in the Senate.
“Kimberley never cried, she wasn’t that type of person. She used to complain about them trying to keep her out of meetings and used to say that they were trying to get her off the Senate ticket,” Hanson told The Australian.
“She was disgusted with it. Kimberley opened up to me, she knew it wouldn’t go any further than me.”
Labor senator Kim Carr said Kitching had been under stress prior to her passing and called for politicians to treat each other better.
“While I’m not a coroner, I do know that the stresses of this job must have had a contribution towards her death,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s appreciated in some quarters just how tough it can be, and it’s a timely reminder that people’s words and actions do have meaning.
“I’m of no doubt that the stresses of the job contributed to her early demise. I can only say that this is something we should all bear in mind in our interpersonal relationships and in the manner in which we treat colleagues.”
Former Labor MP and close friend of Kitching’s, Michael Danby, said those who hurt Kitching, including Senator Wong, should apologise.
“People should address the way she was treated and apologise,” he told The Australian.
“Her family would like it addressed and for people to say sorry. We’re not blaming them for her death but it’s the big-hearted way of handling this.”
Mr Danby also commented on the pressure Kitching was under over her political future.
Kitching had noted to friends that Albanese’s biographer Karen Middleton had made a pointed reference to her preselection remaining unresolved in an article in The Saturday Paper.
“Albanese could have and should have called an end to this by sorting out the Senate preselection,” Mr Danby said.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said she was “horrified” by the culture described in The Australian’s Wednesday report.
“We don’t need mean girls anywhere. And what women in Australia want is actually some good role models,” she told 4BC’s Neil Breen.
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