The Labor senator Kimberley Kitching has died suddenly of a suspected heart attack aged 52, prompting tributes from across the political divide.
The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday night: “The Labor family is in shock tonight at the tragic news that our friend and colleague senator Kimberley Kitching has died suddenly in Melbourne. My sincere condolences to her family. Kimberley will be missed by us all.”
The Labor family is in shock tonight at the tragic news that our friend and colleague Senator Kimberley Kitching has died suddenly in Melbourne. My sincere condolences to her family. Kimberley will be missed by us all.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 10, 2022
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, also offered his condolences, describing Kitching’s death as “a deep and terrible shock”.
Morrison paid tribute to Kitching as “a serious parliamentarian who had a deep interest in Australia’s national security”.
“She demonstrated that her passion for her country was always greater than any partisan view. She clearly loved her country and it genuinely showed,” Morrison said in a statement.
“Senator Kitching was a practising Catholic and we witnessed her authentic faith in the life of the parliament. She followed her conscience and was fearless and I admired that.”
Deeply saddened at the news Victorian Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching passed away suddenly today, aged just 52. Our deepest condolences go to her family, friends and colleagues.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) March 10, 2022
Kitching, a Victorian senator since 2016, was one of the driving forces for Australia to adopt Magnitsky-style laws allowing the country to introduce targeted sanctions against foreign officials. She celebrated the passage of those laws late last year.
Bill Shorten, the former Labor leader and a close friend of the senator, said in a statement: “With a desolate heart I share the news that Kimberley Kitching has passed away.
“Kimberley suffered a heart problem Thursday evening in Melbourne and passed soon after,” he said.
Shorten said her death was “an immense loss to Labor and the nation”.
“As well as her innumerable accolades she has been a wonderful friend to myself, my wife Chloe and our family. To know Kimberley was to be touched not just by her serene intellect but her incredible warmth and vivacity.”
Shorten offered his condolences to her husband, Andrew Landeryou, her family and loved ones.
The deputy Labor leader and fellow Victorian, Richard Marles, said he had known Kitching as a friend for more than 30 years and “words cannot express the sadness of this moment”.
“Kimberley knew what she stood for and she brought a clarity of thought to her role in the Senate that was rare, she was a fierce advocate for all that she believed in,” Marles said.
Kitching was a lawyer, Melbourne city councillor and union leader before she made the move to Canberra.
George Brandis, Australia’s high commissioner to the UK and a former Senate colleague, said Kitching was a brilliant senator whose “commitment to upholding and securing Australia’s interests were unquestioned”.
Shocked at the death of Senator Kimberley Kitching.
— George Brandis (@AusHCUK) March 10, 2022
Senator Kitching was a brilliant Senator. Her commitment to upholding and securing Australia's interests were unquestioned.
I join her many friends in the UK to send prayers to her family at this most difficult moment. GB
Kitching, as chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, had been leading an inquiry into Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan.
She was a foreign policy hawk who was a prominent supporter of a harder line against Beijing.
Together with the Liberal senator James Paterson, Kitching was the Australian co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of legislators from around the world who have called for democratic countries to rethink the way they engage with China.
The alliance calls for democracies to mount “a common defence of shared principles” and to stand up for human rights in their relationships with China.
Last month, Kitching hit the headlines after using parliamentary privilege to name the alleged “puppeteer” behind a foreign interference plot foiled by Asio.
Party figures had been discussing Kitching’s parliamentary future in recent weeks.
She entered the upper house nearly six years ago with Shorten’s strong backing after the resignation of long-serving right faction powerbroker Stephen Conroy sparked a casual Senate vacancy.
In her first speech to the Senate, Kitching declared she would “not allow the peddlers of prejudice to deceive Australians against our own interests”.
“I come here to represent everyday Australian people: the working Australians, the families, the students, the hospital cleaners, the retail workers, the mortgage holders, the renters, the mums and dads, the 4am shift workers, the nurses, the police, the firefighters and the factory workers,” she said.
“And if we fail to remember them – in this place, in our politics, in our public life – then our failure gives room and oxygen to demagogues and those who proffer simplistic answers to complex needs.”
