Kimberley Kitching

Kitching was born in Brisbane, the daughter of Bill and Leigh Kitching. She grew up in the suburb of St Lucia, where she was a childhood friend of Chloe Shorten. Her father was a chemistry professor, and during her youth the family spent time in England, Spain, France, Germany, and the United States as her father received academic postings. Kitching completed her schooling at Brisbane Girls Grammar School and then studied arts and law at the University of Queensland. She joined Young Labor as a student.[3]

Kitching was admitted as a solicitor by the Supreme Court of Queensland. She moved to Melbourne in 1995.[3] In the private sector, she worked for LookSmart before it was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, IQ Media (the company operated by her husband Andrew Landeryou)[4] and Drake International, where she was the head of Government and Corporate Relations.[5]

From December 2012, Kitching worked as the General Manager of the Victorian No. 1 Branch of the Health Services Union,[5][6] leaving after a few years.[7] In 2014, she was called to give evidence to the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption relating to her time with the Health Services Union.[1][8]

In 2015 a Vice President of the Fair Work Commission found that Kitching had illegally completed testing on behalf of other union officials to gain right of entry permits.[9][10]

Kitching has been involved in Victorian Labor politics for some time, including being vice-president of the party's Victorian Branch.[5] She was a Melbourne City Councillor in the early 2000s,[11][12] and was a senior adviser to several ministries in the government of Labor premier Steve Bracks, as well as to John Lenders, the treasurer in the Brumby government.[5][13][14]

In the 2013 Australian federal election, Kitching made a bid for Labor pre-selection for the Victorian electorates of Lalor and Gellibrand. Her bid was unsuccessful due to opposition from within the party, including from Stephen Conroy.[15][4]

On 13 October 2016, Kitching won pre-selection to fill the Victorian Senate seat vacated by Stephen Conroy's resignation on 30 September.[4][16][17] Kitching's pre-selection was supported by her close friend, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, and by the Labor Right.[8][18] Shorten's support for Kitching generated tension in the party with former frontbencher Anthony Albanese refusing to support her pre-selection,[19] and legal affairs spokesperson Mark Dreyfus threatening to resign from his position in the shadow cabinet, although he did not carry out the threat.[20]

Kitching is married to Andrew Landeryou, previously a well-known political blogger; her father-in-law Bill Landeryou was a state government minister in Victoria. The couple married in 2000 after meeting at a Labor fundraising night in country New South Wales. In 2001, the couple purchased Wardlow, a heritage-listed mansion in Parkville, Melbourne. The couple separated due to financial difficulties in the mid-2000s, and Kitching filed for bankruptcy in 2005, selling Wardlow to clear her debts; the bankruptcy was annulled in 2006. They did not divorce and later resumed their relationship.[3]