Allegations that Labor senator Kimberley Kitching faced bullying and ostracism from within her own ranks before her untimely death last week have rocked federal Labor.
The narrative, which began with whispers about the toll of a bruising preselection battle, was given life by a series of stories in The Australian alleging senior Labor figures including Penny Wong had helped isolate Kitching.
Since then figures on the right — for whom Kitching was always a sympathetic figure because of her hawkishness on China — have used her death as an opportunity to attack Labor over an alleged culture of bullying and harassment.
On Sky News, Andrew Bolt, who called Kitching a “close friend”, said he was very angry about her treatment from senior Labor figures.
“The only people who are saying ‘Please don’t talk about this Labor bullying now’, as they wipe the crocodile tears from their eyes, are the people who didn’t love Kimberley,” he said.
“People mainly of the Left. People, maybe, with a guilty conscience.”
Staying with Sky, Peta Credlin, who played politics harder than most during her time in Canberra, claimed Kitching had been “hounded to her death” by Labor.
“Worse still, and perhaps this is where it hit Kitching the hardest, the damage inflicted on her, the barbs and the bullying, came not from her opponents but, as alleged by Markson, her own Labor colleagues,” she said.
“Most particularly, three other women who should have had her back — senators Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher, and someone who was once my colleague here at Sky, Kristina Keneally.”
Writing in The Australian yesterday, outgoing Liberal MP Nicolle Flint said there had been something “very wrong” with the response from senior Labor figures to Kitching’s death, arguing the grieving had somehow felt more strained than the tributes.
Flint argued Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Wong needed to be “held to account” over Kitching’s treatment, claiming Labor had failed to look after one of its own while simultaneously attacking the government over its serious and well-documented gender problems.
That line has been taken up by senior government MPs. This week Prime Minister Scott Morrison said bullying allegations were “serious claims” which couldn’t be dismissed. Defence Minister Peter Dutton went further, telling 2GB that Albanese’s response had been inadequate.
“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,” Dutton said.
Kitching’s funeral is set for Monday. The days preceding have been dominated not by her memory but by a political fight, and an opportunity for conservatives and their media boosters to “put pressure on Labor”.
This morning Wong, Keneally and Gallagher, the three senators supposedly referred to by Kitching as the “mean girls”, responded to allegations in the media about their treatment of her.
“The allegations of bullying are untrue. Other assertions which have been made are similarly inaccurate,” they said.
“After these matters were publicly reported more than two years ago, Senator Wong discussed the matter with Senator Kitching and apologised. Senator Wong understood that apology was accepted. The comments that have been reported do not reflect Senator Wong’s views, as those who know her would understand, and she deeply regrets pain these reports have caused.”
