Anthony Albanese has been involved in a fiery exchange with a journalist about his handling of bullying allegations regarding late senator Kimberley Kitching.
The Labor leader was grilled by Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell at a press conference in western Sydney on Thursday about whether he had a tendency of “just looking after mates”.
Mr Albanese has dismissed calls for an inquiry into his party’s treatment of Senator Kitching who was said to be under immense stress from alleged bullying by colleagues when she died from a suspected heart attack, aged 52.
Mr Albanese has said that she never raised concerns about her treatment with him, instead speaking to other people about being removed from the party’s tactics committee.
Mr Clennell asked Mr Albanese whether he could see why some people in his party believed he had a different set of responses to his allies in the party, compared to enemies.
He raised the example of the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal, which led to extraordinary federal-led intervention that suspended all voting rights in the Victorian branch until at least 2023.
“You have situations where you shut down the Victorian branch, it’s now been shut down for nearly two years,” Mr Clennell said.
He then pointed to the NSW branch of the Labor Party where a $100,000 cash donatioxjmtzywn was delivered to the party’s Sydney headquarters in an Aldi bag.
The state’s corruption watchdog found it was from a property developer and therefore a banned donation.
“The NSW branch of the Labor Party which backed you into the leadership, there was a $100,000 in an Aldi bag,” Mr Clennell said.
“You didn’t shut them down, you’re not holding an inquiry into the Kimberley Kitching bullying allegations.
“Are you just looking after your mates?”
“I did shut down the NSW branch, I did shut it down, we had a review,” Mr Albanese said.
“At the time, we introduced a whole series of reforms and a complete restructuring of the NSW branch, upon the recommendations of the independent review.”
Mr Clennell later asked about reports that there was a belief Senator Kitching was leaking to members of the government.
“Is that why she was kicked off the tactics committee?” he asked.
“People are on and off the tactics committee,” Mr Albanese answered.
“I was on the tactics committee and I was removed from the tactics committee after 2013 and put back on.”
Mr Clennell tried to cut in to his answer to ask another question before Mr Albanese said: “Hang on, I’ll answer questions, but if we can be polite”.
“From time to time, there are changes made to our procedures and to composition of committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives,” he continued.
“That is the normal processes of political discourse.”
