Melbourne lawyer Kimberley Kitching's appointment to the Senate is a "union stitch-up" inside the Labor Party, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said, after the figure of the Victorian Right faction was preselected on Thursday night.
Ms Kitching, a close friend of Mr Shorten and a polarising figure in Labor and union circles, will fill the vacancy left by the surprise resignation of powerbroker Stephen Conroy from the party's top Senate spot.
Her appointment has been criticised by figures inside and outside the Labor movement, with vocal anti-union senator Eric Abetz labelling the former general manager of a Health Services Union branch a "dodgy HSU boss".
"The serious findings against Ms Kitching by one of the most respected members of the Fair Work Commission makes her unfit for public office," Senator Abetz said.
"Mr Shorten has once again embraced a dodgy union boss and helped parachute her into the Parliament."
The Prime Minister said "it looks to me like yet another union stitch-up".
"As you know, the modern Labor Party is essentially controlled by a small number of trade unions - militant trade unions for the most part," he said.
"This is not a broad-based political movement and all of their appointments and deals are factionalised."
Ms Kitching, a former Melbourne city councillor, was backed by Mr Shorten's camp but her nomination split the Right faction more broadly, with concern that her appointment would shatter the internal stability pact in the Victorian branch of the party.
A 2014 report by the Royal Commission into trade union corruption recommended criminal charges be considered against Ms Kitching and others over a scam involving right-of-entry permits, which allow union officials to access work sites.
Mr Shorten congratulated Ms Kitching on her preselection, saying she will be a "hard-working advocate" for workers and women.
"Kimberley brings to the position experience in local government, the legal profession and she's been fighting for the rights of workers for a long time," he said.
She is married to Andrew Landeryou, who was arrested in this year's election campaign for allegedly vandalising opponents' campaign material and formerly ran a divisive blog that targeted political and media figures. Mr Landeryou was not charged following his arrest.
The couple is considered a tight-knit political power duo.
"It's crazy," one Labor frontbencher said of the selection. Another senior party figure said it was a political "suicide note" for Mr Shorten.
It will further bolster Labor's female representation in Parliament, taking them up to 15 women and 11 men in the Senate, compared to the Coalition's 22 men and 8 women.
Forty-five per cent of the entire Labor caucus will now be women while the Coalition sits at 20 per cent.
Mr Conroy and frontbencher Richard Marles lobbied for another candidate, corporate lawyer Diana Taylor, while the National Union of Workers boycotted the preselection process because it was "undemocratic".
Ms Kitching has been approached for comment.
with Royce Millar and Ben Schneiders
