Richard Marles denies Kimberley Kitching told him about Senate bullies

Deputy ALP leader Richard Marles has denied claims from Kimberley Kitching’s friends that she told him she was being bullied by the party’s Senate team.

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles has denied claims from Kimberley Kitching’s friends that she told him she was being bullied by the ALP’s Senate team.

Mr Marles, the most senior member of Kitching’s Victorian Right faction, has for the first time responded to accusations he failed to pass on a bullying complaint to Anthony Albanese.

“I spoke to Kimberley on many occasions and those conver­sations were obviously private and I don’t intend to reveal them,” Mr Marles said. “But given all that has been said, let me let me say this: at no point did Kimberley make a bullying complaint to me.

“At no point did she ask me to take action. She was obviously ­unhappy about the Senate tactics committee.

“Since her death I have ­really not wanted to talk about that but rather to talk about her life because I don’t think that this issue defined who Kimberley was.”

At the weekend, Kitching’s friend and Health Workers Union secretary Diana Asmar claimed Kitching had confided with Mr Marles about the alleged bullying at the hands of Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.

Former Labor MP Michael Danby disputes Mr Marles’s claim, saying he was made aware that Kitching felt bullied.

Mr Danby is calling for an ­independent investigation into the bullying claims and whether Mr Marles failed to adequately ­address her concerns.

He has also called for Senator Wong to provide evidence she apologised to Kitching for raising the late senator’s lack of children in a policy debate in 2019 when Senator Wong reportedly lashed out at her opposition to Labor calling for a climate emergency in parliament. “Well, if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emer­gency,” Senator Wong reportedly said.

Mr Danby told The Australian he spoke to Kitching nearly every day in the past few years and never heard of Senator Wong’s apology.

“She would often talk with us about how upset she was about what she described as the ‘creepy’ remark about childlessness’,” he said. “None of us heard about this bloody apology. It was used as a defence in the media.”

After keeping a low profile for a week to avoid questions on the Kitching controversy, the Opposition Leader on Wednesday did morning television interviews and rejected the need for an inquiry into the allegations.

He claimed all the allegations of mistreatment had already been publicly aired and denied it constituted bullying.