“I wish she was here to hear all the nice things that are being said about her,” he said.
“She would talk to Rita Panahi,she would talk to Andrew Bolt ... Sometimes people want to have the other point of view put to them. And we’re so used to living in our own echo chambers.”
Mr Albanese,who had appointed Senator Kitching to the Opposition front bench,said her death was “a tremendous shock for the entire Labor family”. He would not be drawn onMr Shorten’s comments that the pressures of a preselection battle had put her under immense stress.
“It is something that was just totally unexpected ... She was just beginning her political career,” Mr Albanese said. “Kimberley was someone who lit up a room when she was there. She was so full of life.”
Panahi described Senator Kitching as “a warrior for Australia”,while Bolt declared on Sky News:“This is someone who had guts ... this is a politician who would defy her own party to fight for the right things.”
Senator Kitching was a member of an informal cross-party grouping of national security hawks known colloquially as the Wolverines,which Senator Abetz said “is holding the Chinese dictatorship to account”,and the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
She last year criticised the Victorian state Labor government for its dealings with China,saying it “should not have entered into an agreement with the Chinese government on the Belt and Road Initiative - it is bad policy and bad optics.”
Senator Hanson tweeted overnight that she was devastated by news of Senator Kitching’s sudden death,describing her late colleague as “always happy,approachable and genuine.”
“We shared mutual respect for each other and I will miss her terribly,” she wrote.
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The two senators travelled to Afghanistan together in 2018 and Senator Hanson said it was there that they formed a close friendship.
Senator Patrick said in a tweet that Senator Kitching “will be dearly missed”.
“We agreed,we disagreed,we talked,we schemed for good,we dined,” he wrote,describing Senator Kitching as an asset to the Labor party,the Senate and the people of Victoria.
Liberal senator Jane Hume said Senator Kitching “was a truly fine senator,a proud and fierce Victorian and a friend”.
“While we came from different corners to the political ring we shared values of liberty,human dignity and a belief in the ability of public policy to create public good,” she tweeted.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement that Senator Kitching was “a serious parliamentarian” with a deep interest in national security and he had come to greatly respect the way Senator Kitching approached the issues she championed.
“Her passion for her country was always greater than any partisan view,” Mr Morrison said.
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott described Senator Kitching as “a true patriot”.
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