Revealed: the ‘bad’ Kimberley Kitching texts about Penny Wong and her bullying complaints

Kimberley Kitching sent a text saying Penny Wong never wanted to see her again the night before she lodged a bullying complaint with workplace safety consultants.

Kimberley Kitching, left, and Penny Wong

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching sent a text saying Penny Wong never wanted to see her again the night before she lodged a bullying complaint with workplace safety consultants.

Senator Kitching complained twice about bullying in the second half of last year, first to Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles and then to external consultants brought in to address workplace safety.

The Australian can reveal that the night before lodging a bullying complaint with a PWC consultant, Senator Kitching sent a text message to a good friend to say Senator Wong never wanted to see her again.

“Wong has been bad,” Kitching said in a text at 9.45pm on November 4. “She would love to never see me again.”

The text messages, provided to The Australian by a good friend of Senator Kitching, show that the frosty relationship was on her mind the night before she lodged the complaint with the workplace consultants.

The Australian revealed on Wednesday that Senator Kitching described senators Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally as the “mean girls” for how she had been frozen out and ostracised.

The late senator Kimberley Kitching (left) enters the chamber with Penny Wong in 2016. Picture: Ray Strange.

The Australian can also reveal Senator Kitching – who died of a suspected heart attack on March 10 – had a meeting with Mr Marles on June 22 last year at 3.30pm in his office where she raised with him how she was being frozen out by the Senate leadership team and spoke about being unfairly dumped from the tactics committee meetings.

Mr Marles is understood to have told Senator Kitching he would try to “sort it out”, but the situation was never resolved.

Asked what action he took after Senator Kitching complained to him of bullying, Mr Marles refused to answer questions. Instead he accused journalists of being “offensive”.

Mr Marles also repeatedly refused to answer queries around Senator Kitching’s treatment by colleagues, including senators Wong, Gallagher and Keneally.

Senator Katy Gallagher, left, Senator Kristina Keneally, centre, and Senator Penny Wong, right, in the Senate chamber.

“She has not had her funeral yet and you’re asking questions in that context,” he said. “I don’t accept the assertions that have been in the media but I’m not about to get into that debate now.”

Mr Marles angrily rejected the suggestion Labor figures including himself were repeatedly eulogising Senator Kitching in press appearances as a tactic to avoid answering questions about her treatment.

“I profoundly reject what you’ve just said and I’d really think about the question that you’ve just asked; I’ve rarely said this in an interview, but that’s offensive,” he said.

Senator Kitching also lodged a formal complaint alleging she was being bullied by her Senate Labor colleagues to a parliament-employed workplace trainer.

The complaint was made over Zoom on November 5 last year to a PWC consultant brought in as part of a Department of Finance program, news.com.au reported.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Richard Marles. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

The ABC reported that Senator Kitching told colleagues she said to the trainer at the end of an hour-long session on sexual harassment, bullying and respect at work: “What are you going to do about the fact that I am being bullied?”

Senators Wong, Gallagher and Keneally have denied any wrongdoing.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the way Labor leader Anthony Albanese had responded to the allegations raised about Senator Kitching’s treatment was far from adequate.

“The Labor Party are open about it in private, they’re scathing of their two colleagues and for Anthony Albanese to say, ‘Well, there’s nothing to see here and I’m not going to investigate it’ or “I’m not going to ask Penny Wong or Kristina Keneally whether they’ve got any remorse or whether they think they have learnt anything from it, or that they could apologise to the family”, I think shows a complete lack of leadership,” he told Ray Hadley on 2GB.

Describing Senator Kitching as a “dear friend”, Mr Dutton said while he wouldn’t disclose the nature of their conversations, he knew “she was under a lot of pressure”. He suggested that if Mr Albanese wouldn’t investigate the allegations then the Senate may launch its own inquiry.

“Putting all politics aside, I think there are serious allegations here that have been made and I think out of respect for Kimberley and her family, they need to be properly investigated and they need to be properly understood and they need to be put into context,” he said. “And if the Labor Party is not willing to do that, then I suspect Pauline Hanson and others in the Senate will see what option they can take.”