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.
Kitching has been involved in Victorian Labor politics for some time, including being vice-president of the party's Victorian Branch. She was a Melbourne City Councillor in the early 2000s, and was a senior adviser to several ministries in the government of Labor premierSteve Bracks, as well as to John Lenders, the treasurer in the Brumby government. 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. On 13 October 2016, Kitching won pre-selection to fill the Victorian Senate seat vacated by Stephen Conroy's resignation on 30 September. Kitching's pre-selection was supported by her close friend, Opposition LeaderBill Shorten, and by the Labor Right. Shorten's support for Kitching generated tension in the party with former frontbencher Anthony Albanese refusing to support her pre-selection, and legal affairs spokesperson Mark Dreyfus threatening to resign from his position in the shadow cabinet, although he did not carry out the threat.
Senator (2016–present)
Kitching was formally sworn in as a Senator on 7 November 2016. After the 2019 election, Kitching was included in Anthony Albanese's shadow ministry as Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability. She was also made Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate. Senator Kitching has been prominent in criticising her counterparts in the Victorian ALP, for their support of China's global Belt and Road Initiative saying "The Victorian government should not have entered into an agreement with the Chinese government on the Belt and Road Initiative - it is bad policy and bad optics." On 4 June 2020 Kitching was announced as a founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. In an interview on ABC radio, Kitching said the alliance of 13 democratic nations was to see that:
...our rules based order is protected. There’s a great desire amongst the group to examine human rights issues. I think Western liberal democracies probably hoped that China was heading down a more liberal and democratic path. But I think when President Xi became president in 2013, that became a fainter and fainter hope.
Personal life
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.
