Family rep calls out publication Crikey over ‘macabre’ article that claims Kimberley Kitching was a ‘strategic liar’
Claims that Senator Kimberley Kitching is a ‘strategic liar’ posted by an online publication hours before her funeral have been denied by family and friends.
The family of the late Kimberley Kitching have hit back at an online post after calling her a “strategic liar” hours before her family and friends bid farewell to the senator in a moving service to celebrate her life.
Crikey general correspondent Guy Rundle wrote an article titled ‘The True Story of Kimberley Kitching and the Labor Gang’, in which he accused Ms Kitching of ‘personal corruption’ and being an ‘established’ liar.
In the article published on Monday, he said: “If I don’t believe Kitching’s claim that she was affected by the factional conflict in which she was embroiled, it is because there is a established record that she is a strategic liar and has abused official procedures, and good evidence of personal corruption”.
Stream Sky News live and on demand with Flash. More than 25 news channels in one place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends October 31, 2022
A representative for Ms Kitching’s family called the article ‘false and macabre’.
“The author has a long history of psychotically hateful comments,” a family representative told SkyNews.com.au.
“We will seek advice on legal remedies to protect family members from further harm from him, his post and any other online trolls.”
Reports have emerged following the 52-year-old senator’s death that she was bullied by a faction of Labor ‘mean girls’ Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.
The trio refuted the claims in a joint statement released earlier this week.
“The bullying allegations are false. Other claims that have been made are simply inaccurate,” reads part of the lengthy statement.
During the service, Ms Kitching’s broken husband Andrew Landeryou took aim at the ‘cantankerous cabal’ who opposed his wife inside and outside Parliament.
He delivered a heartfelt eulogy at the memorial service in Melbourne on Monday afternoon before responding to allegations of bullying that emerged after his death.
Mr Landeryou revealed that friends and staff of his wife of over two decades, affectionately known as Kimba, “are angry at the way she has been treated”.
“Of course they are and I have nothing against them about that, they know what they have seen with their own eyes,” he said.
“I could say a lot about the unpleasantness of a cantankerous cabal, not all in parliament, that targeted Kimba and the intensity of it bewildered and hurt her.
“I hope it’s enough to say that she deserved so much better.”
Last week, former Labor MP and close friend Michael Danby said Ms Kitching ‘certainly felt the stress’ amid the preselection threats.
He told Sky News Australia host Laura Jayes that the treatment of Ms Kitching by her Labor colleagues was ‘beyond fair treatment and difference of opinion’.
“It was nothing short of bullying,” he said.
“It’s a fine line, people are entitled to fierce disagreements, but it was too much in my opinion what was done crossed that fine line and people should say they’re sorry and they should. regret.”
Senator Pauline Hanson also echoed the bullying allegations, saying Ms Kitching would confide in a nation’s leader when they caught up inside parliament.
“She was terribly frustrated at times with the way she was treated,” Ms Hanson told Sky News Australia host Chris Smith last week.
“She was kicked out of meetings, they wouldn’t include her in anything, she was frustrated with the politics she tried to put in front of the party.
“She was frustrated with the policies I put in place, why the Labor Party wouldn’t support them.
“She tried to fight for issues that she thought were good for the country and the people.
“But she was always oppressed, especially by Penny Wong and Kristina Keneally.”
