Wong To Kitching: “If you had children, you might understand”

Posted on 16 March, 2022 by C.L.

Sharri Markson continues: Pattern of Kimberley Kitching hostilities sunk to ‘grotesque, foul’ gibes.

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28 Responses to Wong To Kitching: “If you had children, you might understand”

C.L. says:

16 March, 2022 at 9:46 pm

“If you had children, you might understand,” Penny Wong shot at Kimberley Kitching during a heated meeting attended by senior Labor politicians in 2019.

The group was debating a Greens Senate motion that supported school students who engaged in “civil disobedience” at climate emergency protests.

During the meeting, Kitching argued the motion was an exercise in virtue signalling and that some parents would prefer their children to be in class during school hours.

Wong’s response to Kitching stung.

“Well, if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency,” Wong reportedly said.

Those close to Kitching say it was particularly hurtful because the painful truth was that Kitching had desperately wanted children, she loved children, but had been unable to have any.

“The children thing was particularly grotesque, it was just foul,” one of Kitching’s closest confidants said. “It was brutal.”

Word of the exchange leaked to the ABC but the subsequent media report did not name Wong as the person who uttered the incendiary remark. Wong was only identified in journalist Samantha Maiden’s 2020 book, Party Animals.

The gibe was part of a pattern of hostile behaviour by senior Labor figures towards Kitching that has emerged in the wake of her death from a sudden heart attack on March 10.

The Australian on Wednesday revealed Kitching had been ostracised by her senior Labor colleagues who dumped her from Labor’s tactics committee meetings, froze her out and blocked her from asking regular questions during Question Time.

Labor’s senior leadership team refused to listen to Kitching’s explanation that she had not forewarned Linda Reynolds about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation. Instead, she was wrongly accused of leaking and the Liberal minister’s claim was accepted as gospel.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese also demoted Kitching from her beloved portfolio of assistant spokeswoman for government accountability in January 2021 and she was then removed from the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration in October 2021.

Albanese ruled out an investigation into how Kitching was treated in the months before she passed away, claiming it was disrespectful to do so after she had died.

This is despite the fact Kitching had complained about her treatment to deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, specifically in relation to the decision to dump her from the tactics committee meetings.

As The Australian reported on Wednesday, despite Kitching’s pleas for Marles to sort it out, the situation remained unresolved.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Kitching had also confided in her about her treatment.

She said the pair would have a cup of tea and maybe a toasted sandwich after a particularly tough day in the Senate.

“Kimberley never cried, she wasn’t that type of person. She used to complain about them trying to keep her out of meetings and used to say that they were trying to get her off the Senate ticket,” Hanson told The Australian.

“She was disgusted with it. Kimberley opened up to me, she knew it wouldn’t go any further than me.”

Labor senator Kim Carr said Kitching had been under stress prior to her passing and called for politicians to treat each other better.

“While I’m not a coroner, I do know that the stresses of this job must have had a contribution towards her death,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s appreciated in some quarters just how tough it can be, and it’s a timely reminder that people’s words and actions do have meaning.

“I’m of no doubt that the stresses of the job contributed to her early demise. I can only say that this is something we should all bear in mind in our interpersonal relationships and in the manner in which we treat colleagues.”

Former Labor MP and close friend of Kitching’s, Michael Danby, said those who hurt Kitching, including Senator Wong, should apologise.

“People should address the way she was treated and apologise,” he told The Australian.

“Her family would like it addressed and for people to say sorry. We’re not blaming them for her death but it’s the big-hearted way of handling this.”

Mr Danby also commented on the pressure Kitching was under over her political future.

Kitching had noted to friends that Albanese’s biographer Karen Middleton had made a pointed reference to her preselection remaining unresolved in an article in The Saturday Paper.

“Albanese could have and should have called an end to this by sorting out the Senate preselection,” Mr Danby said.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said she was “horrified” by the culture described in The Australian’s Wednesday report.

“We don’t need mean girls anywhere. And what women in Australia want is actually some good role models,” she told 4BC’s Neil Breen.
NoFixedAddress says:

16 March, 2022 at 10:06 pm

How soon can I join The Australian Labor Party?

I want to be a friend of Wong.
rosie says:

16 March, 2022 at 10:20 pm

Good to see some boots being sunk.
Pity it came after Kitchings death, and yes it may well have made a vital difference.
So much for the Labor party being pro women.
I hope the electorate sit up and take notice of how they treat their own.
Lee says:

16 March, 2022 at 10:59 pm

I am amazed that Wong has any friends.
She is in no position to judge others re bullying of women.
Very low and grubby.
Mind you, her mate, KKK, is no better.
Ivan Denisovich says:

17 March, 2022 at 3:30 am

Tim Blair:

Labor’s “mean girls” subculture is under examination following the death of shunned Labor senator Kimberley Kitching – but Anthony Albanese finds the phrase “mean girls” to itself be mean…..

“I find it astonishing that in 2022, I get a question using the term ‘mean girls’,” Albanese said.

“I find that extraordinarily disrespectful to describe strong, articulate, principled women like Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally. I find it astonishing and a throwback. Decades. Decades.”….

Speaking of disrespectful:

News.com.au understands before her death Senator Kitching complained directly to Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles that she was being treated poorly in the Senate, but the ALP now says “out of respect” to her death they won’t investigate the claims.

How thoughtful of them…..

UPDATE. James Morrow:

Honestly, if a steaming load of faux outrage over the term “mean girls” is the best Labor can do after reports of alleged bullying suffered by Kimberley Kitching, they may as well have their ears painted on…..

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/anthony-albanese-and-his-mean-girls/news-story/2ace85b9f75e5c4ba02a18501a57cc62
Cassie of Sydney says:

17 March, 2022 at 6:04 am

Another rant, apologies…

1. As I said yesterday, this kind of behaviour is consistent with “female” behaviour. And this is why I find that Wong’s comment about Kitching’s childlessness rings true. A man would never comment on a woman’s childlessness. The plain fact is that men don’t say such things. As a childless woman myself (something that causes me immense pain), there is nothing more painful than being reminded of it, especially in a “bitchy” way by another woman.

2. Both Wong and Keneally have a long history making nasty remarks. It’s in their DNA.

3. I regard Wong as an evil and loathsome person who, when cornered, deliberately obfuscates around issues and worse, feigns a kind of mock decency. I remember last year when she was asked about the orchestrated campaign by GetUp, Green, union and Labor party activists against Nicolle Flint (a similar campaign happened in Warringah, no doubt there was a template), and as I said yesterday I’m pretty sure Wong knew about what was going on. When asked by a journalist about Flint, I watched her both deliberately try to avoid the issue and at the same time feign sympathy by saying that Flint should have come and talked to her privately about the harassment in Boothby. When I heard that I nearly fell of my chair laughing. That’s Wong’s shtick. And she did it again yesterday, it was this same feigning of “care” and “compassion” around Kitching’s death. In other words, what I’m trying to say is that Wong is a chameleon and a very dangerous one….she’s far more dangerous than Keneally who is like a character out of a National Lampoon movie.

4. I can guarantee you that Wong was up to her ears in everything to do with the Porter affair. She was part of an unholy cabal of nasty and evil South Australian women who decided to end Porter’s career based on the ravings of a mentally unwell woman who had simply carried a torch for Porter for decades and when she lost her mind, she started imagining, with help from a therapist of course, all sorts of ugly things.

5. Let me be blunt and yes….bitchy, because I am a woman. Whilst Wong might be a “parent” of sorts, the plain truth is that she doesn’t have any children either.
Chris M says:

17 March, 2022 at 6:38 am

If Wong fathered children it would be for the purpose of extinguishing them before or at birth.

This thing will receive awful news on the day of judgement.
Ivan Denisovich says:

17 March, 2022 at 8:36 am

“Well, if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency,” Wong reportedly said.

Those close to Kitching say it was particularly hurtful because the painful truth was that Kitching had desperately wanted children, she loved children, but had been unable to have any.

Wong lecturing about Abbott as part of a coordinated, cynical tactic:

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott gave a “green light to the baying wolves” to attack Julia Gillard on the basis of gender, senior Labor Minister Penny Wong says…..

There was implicit permission and at times explicit permission to go her.

I would say it is a legitimisation of invective and a legitimisation of prejudice.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/penny-wong-reveals-why-she-betrayed-julia-gillard/news-story/1d6474b8fced144e2c0ab8437287ef95

And this:

Senior government minister Penny Wong says federal parliament is now as aggressive as she’s ever seen it.
And the finance minister rejects claims that Prime Minister Julia Gillard is playing the gender card to deflect any criticism of her performance…..

Senator Wong said women who expressed concerns about attacks on their gender had to deal with tactics from critics who say they are using the female card.

“They are either `you are being a victim, you are trying to cover-up your competence, you are just being politically correct’,” Senator Wong said on Wednesday.
“These are all tactics to silence women when we speak about what is really happening.
“It is not a new tactic, most of us who have had to confront sexism in our lives, in our workplaces are familiar with it.”
Ms Gillard attacked Mr Abbott in parliament on Tuesday where she accused the opposition leader of sexism and misogyny.
Senator Wong said she would judge Mr Abbott by his comments and the policies he represented.
“Tony Abbott is on the public record over a long period expressing attitudes more appropriate to the 1950s than they are to contemporary Australia,” Senator Wong told ABC television.
The finance minister said Mr Abbott was “certainly guilty of sexism”.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/parliament-most-aggressive-i-ve-seen-wong/ee43182f-711a-46f5-9cc0-92d3ceb043a8
rosie says:

17 March, 2022 at 9:18 am

Exactly Cassie!
There is something extraordinarily cruel about using unwanted female childlessness as a jibe.
C.L. says:

17 March, 2022 at 9:31 am

Whilst Wong might be a “parent” of sorts, the plain truth is that she doesn’t have any children either.

Correct. She is, at best, in loco parentis.
twostix says:

17 March, 2022 at 9:46 am

Wong the barren step “mother”.

Sophie is the birth mother. The children were conceived using IVF technology. The biological father is known to the women and the girls, but has remained anonymous in public.

You know, in the apocalypse, we might just be on the wrong side.
twostix says:

17 March, 2022 at 9:50 am

Today, Sophie is the primary caregiver for their children. Penny tries to compensate for being so often away by texting the children daily with “lots of emojis”. She also writes them letters and talks to them every day when she is away.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
twostix says:

17 March, 2022 at 9:53 am

I laugh but if “Sophie” ever decided to leave old Wong, it’d be one of those horrific cases where Wong, having to keep up the facade that she’s built up in the public that Sophie’s children are also “hers”, would use the courts to force Sophie and the father’s children to keep on seeing her, whether they wanted to or not.
C.L. says:

17 March, 2022 at 10:04 am

In that 2019 Women’s Weekly puff piece, Wong directly blamed John Howard for causing her brother’s suicide.

In the debate surrounding Kim Kitching’s death, that’s very interesting.
twostix says:

17 March, 2022 at 10:50 am

Sometime during the Howard years, Toby, by then in his mid-teens, failed to come home from school as expected. Jane and Penny were frantic as the hours ticked by.
Eventually he arrived, footsore and weeping. A group of young men had got on the bus and abused him for being Asian. The bus driver had stopped and made Toby get off.

I think I’m just going to file that under shitthatdidn’thappen.txt
Lee says:

17 March, 2022 at 10:57 am

3. I regard Wong as an evil and loathsome person who, when cornered, deliberately obfuscates around issues and worse, feigns a kind of mock decency.

Like when she is tackled about legitimate concerns over China, and our relationship with it.
This is a woman who could well be our next foreign minister in a couple of months.
Frightening.
twostix says:

17 March, 2022 at 11:09 am

The brother story doesn’t even make sense:

Sometime during the Howard years, Toby, by then in his mid-teens

He was in his “mid-teens” in during the Howard / One Nation years she says.

In one of the great tragedies of her life, Toby died by suicide 10 days after his 30th birthday, which was also the day on which Penny was elected to the Senate in 2001.

But he was 30 in 2001.

An insight into the minds and loose principles of these insane people.
Not Trampis says:

17 March, 2022 at 12:17 pm

This whole thing is disgraceful.
Kitching’s funeral has not occurred.
No-one can say anything because of that. Kitching was good on some issues and not goo on others. No-one but no-one is going to talk about that at this time which is why Markson probably wrote her articles. Remember she did her very embarrassing Wuhan labs which showed this in spades.
If you were Kitching’s friend and talked to Markson it aint helping those who will attend the funeral.

no taste or class.

Wong is a foster mother not a step mother.
C.L. says:

17 March, 2022 at 12:27 pm

Wong is a foster mother not a step mother.

She ‘fostered’ two IVF babies, did she?
She isn’t any kind of mother.
Boambee John says:

17 March, 2022 at 12:46 pm

Non Mentis

This whole thing is disgraceful.
Kitching’s funeral has not occurred.
No-one can say anything because of that.

Why not? The Liars Party had no compunction about using the words of a dead, mentally ill, woman for political advantage. Is it that the events reflect badly on Labor’s “Mean Girls” that you want silence? Are you that shallow?
Shy Ted says:

17 March, 2022 at 1:02 pm

Turkey basters know what fatherhood is.
Lee says:

17 March, 2022 at 1:13 pm

no taste or class.

I agree, Wong is an awful person.
Mak Siccar says:

17 March, 2022 at 1:29 pm

In the Oz just now:

Wong cancels fundraiser appearance to attend KK’s funeral.

But only after public condemnation…. What a PoS she is.
Not Trampis says:

17 March, 2022 at 1:54 pm

There are always two sides to a story before you can judge what occurred.
no-one is going to speak ill of Kitching with a funeral in the offing.
As I said anyone involved in this tawdry episode thus far has shown no class nor any taste at all.

Unfortunately these days when a lesbian does the heterosexual thing and has a baby then one is the natural mother and the other is the foster mother. She cannot be a step mother as there has not been a death nor a divorce.
Boambee John says:

17 March, 2022 at 2:26 pm

Yes, Non Mentis really is that shallow!
Entropy says:

17 March, 2022 at 4:34 pm

So shallow his surface has dried out.
Perfidious Albino says:

17 March, 2022 at 10:16 pm

‘Grotesque’ about sums it up, they just don’t expect to get called out on it… Hi!
Buccaneer says:

18 March, 2022 at 8:26 am

Where is Grace? Where is Julia Gillard? Where are the feminist mafia? Perhaps they have been reading the same tawdry script as NM? It seems the saying where there is smoke there is fire only applies to Liberal Ministers and Catholic clergy at least according to the SMH, guardian and ABC.