Anthony Albanese ducks ALP bullying inquiry

Anthony Albanese has dismissed Kimberley Kitching’s ‘mean girls’ description of Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally as sexist and ‘disrespectful’.

Anthony Albanese has refused to investigate allegations of bullying, isolation and hostility by senior female ALP Senate colleagues towards the late Kimberley Kitching, dismissing her “mean girls’’ description of Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally as sexist and “extraordinarily disrespectful’’.

Scott Morrison on Wednesday demanded Labor investigate its culture driven by senior female Senate figures, and he called the treatment of Senator Kitching – who died last week aged 52 of a suspected heart attack – “distressing” and cautioned that the allegations must not be dismissed.

Kimberley Kitching. Picture: David Geraghty

But the Opposition Leader on Wednesday denied the existence of any cultural problems within the Labor Party.

Asked about the bullying “mean girls” culture that Senator Kitching had raised to both friends and colleagues, Mr Albanese said it was “astonishing that in 2022 I get a question using the term ‘mean girls’.”

He said it was disrespectful to Senators Wong, Gallagher and Keneally. “It’s also disrespectful to Kimberley Kitching as a colleague,” he added. “Her funeral isn’t until Monday. Can people be a bit respectful at this time?”

An investigation by The Australian revealed Senator Kitching endured a pattern of hostility by senior Labor senators that put her under intense strain in the lead-up to her death. Senator Kitching and several close confidants had referred to the group as “mean girls” after she was isolated, kicked off Labor’s tactics committee and subjected to cruel treatment.

Senator Wong on Wednesday said she was yet to decide whether she would attend Senator Kitching’s funeral service on Monday, and she denied claims that she was part of her ostracism.

Senator Wong added that she did not “agree” with the claims and said she would not engage in “political commentary” out of respect for Senator Kitching’s grieving family and loved ones.

“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,” Senator Wong said. “I am simply not going to engage in commentary about some of the allegations.”

Senator Gallagher on Wednesday denied any involvement in a “mean girls” culture among the party’s senior Senate leadership team, despite having been named by Kitching.

“Many of those assertions in that article are not true in my view, and I just don’t think it’s respectful for us to enter into commentary or disagreement about particular aspects of it at this time; I don’t think it’s right, people are still grieving,” Senator Gallagher told the ABC.

Senator Keneally told The Australian she had no comment to make.

The Prime Minister urged Labor to address problems in its culture, as he paid tribute to Senator Kitching as a figure who stood up strongly for Australia’s national security and sovereignty.

Illustration: Johannes Leak

“These reports of her treatment are not ones that I can confirm, obviously, as the leader of the Liberal Party, but they’re certainly things that I would expect to be taken very seriously and -addressed,” Mr Morrison said.

“The reason she had so many friends on our side (of politics) is because she stood up very strongly for issues of our national security and sovereignty.”

Victorian Labor MP Michael Danby said on Wednesday the bullying of Senator Kitching was driven by the rise of a “strong” left-wing faction in the party who had “punished” her for her mainstream political position.

Mr Danby, who was a close factional ally of Senator Kitching, said she represented a Hawke/Keating era of Labor which was no longer dominant in the party, and said she had been targeted by a “cabal of Lilliputians” in the Victorian Labor Party who had “dangled” her Senate selection “over her head”.

“The left wing for the Labor Party is too strong, and the reason she was difficult was because she represented the mainstream, the Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Kim Beazley point of view which is now not in the ascendancy in Labor, and people were envious of her cosmopolitanism, her charm, the national support across the aisles,” Mr Danby told Sky News.

“She was left there for 10 hours at a time during the midnight shift in the Senate for too long, too many days, as a sort of punishment because she didn’t believe in people’s ideological views.”

Assistant Attorney-General Amanda Stoker said it showed the “tone” Labor would set if it won the election, adding she was concerned the ALP’s “petty” grievances would be prioritised over the needs of the nation.

“If this kind of ‘mean girls’ approach is the tone they intend to set should they have the opportunity to govern, then that will not only be bad for women in parliament, it’ll be bad for all Australians – as the petty grievances of one group against another, or one individual against another, are prioritised over the bigger-picture needs of the nation,” she told the ABC.