Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to join with colleagues on this sad occasion to pay my respects to the late Senator Kimberley Kitching. I acknowledge the contribution that my colleague the member for Boothby has just made and the contributions that others in this chamber have made today. Like others, I found Kimberley a kind, generous, warm, intelligent, committed parliamentarian, a person who sought justice in every way she could for those who could not, in many instances, find it for themselves.

I had the privilege of travelling on two delegations with Kimberley, one to the Tibetan administration in exile. We went to Delhi first, to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and then we travelled further north in India to the foothills of the Himalayas at Dharamsala, where we met with officials of the Tibetan administration in exile. That was a wonderful journey, an opportunity, travelling around in four-wheel-drive vehicles in that mountainous region, visiting many of the places that were so important to the Tibetan people and meeting with their leaders. One of my treasured memories of Kimberley is a photo of both of us with a group of Tibetan children at a school that we visited there. Others have spoken about her warm smile, the twinkle in her eye and that glow in her face, and they're just captured in that photo of Kimberley. That was an important example of her commitment to seeking human rights for people wherever they are in the world. The other delegation was an ASEAN delegation to three of the ASEAN nations: Myanmar, Singapore and Indonesia. Once again, particularly in Myanmar—before the current troubles but when the problems with the Rohingya were occurring—Kimberley was seeking to try and improve the human rights of so many people.

It is through human rights that I believe she will be most remembered. I had the privilege of co-chairing, with her, the group of parliamentary friends of democracy in Hong Kong—and democracy is something which sadly has disappeared under the Chinese Communist regime. It is the greatest tribute to her that she championed, for such a long time in this parliament, the adoption of Magnitsky-type legislation. I have the privilege of chairing the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade's Human Rights Subcommittee, of which Kimberley was a member, and members on both sides of this parliament unanimously proposed that we should have Magnitsky-type legislation. There can be no greater tribute to her than the fact that that legislation passed unanimously through this parliament. Indeed, just in the last couple of days, the government has used that legislation to sanction individuals for human rights abuses, kleptocracy and similar, related offences.

Like many other members and senators, I had the privilege of attending her funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. That was such a wonderful tribute to her, not just in the words that were spoken by many, including her friend the member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, but also in the cross-section of people who attended that funeral. There were people there from all walks of life. There were people from both sides of politics. Importantly, there were people that she stood for, that she had represented, and who shared her values.

I think one thing that one can say about Kimberley is that she was a parliamentarian. I'm not sure that I would describe everybody in this place as a parliamentarian, but she certainly was. And she made that a forte.

I think what's important about someone like Kimberley was that she believed that you should plant your standard in the ground and say: 'Here I stand, or here I fall.' And that was what she was prepared to do. She acted courageously on many occasions in saying: 'These are the things which I stand for,' and I think this parliament is only enhanced by having people—regardless of what their particular views might be or what their causes are—who are prepared to plant their standard in the ground like that.

So I join with all my colleagues in extending my condolences—particularly to her many friends, and I wish to note one in this regard. My former chief of staff Brendan Darcy was a very, very good friend of Kimberley and Andrew. I think they met for coffee most weekends in Maribyrnong, where they lived, and I know that he, along with many others, is truly saddened by the premature death of Kimberley Kitching. To her husband, Andrew, to her parents and to her brother, I extend my sincere condolences. May she rest in peace.

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