[2] In the private sector, she worked for LookSmart before it was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, IQ Media (the company operated by her husband Andrew Landeryou)[3] and Drake International, where she was the head of Government and Corporate Relations.

[1][7] In 2015 a vice president of the Fair Work Commission found that Kitching had illegally completed testing on behalf of other union officials to gain right of entry permits.

[4][12][13] In the 2013 Australian federal election, Kitching made a bid for Labor pre-selection for the Victorian electorates of Lalor and Gellibrand.

[14][3] On 13 October 2016, Kitching won pre-selection to fill the Victorian Senate seat vacated by Stephen Conroy's resignation on 30 September.

[19] Kitching was formally chosen as a replacement Senator by a joint sitting of the Parliament of Victoria on 25 October 2016, and sworn in on 7 November 2016.

[21] In February 2022, one month before her death, Kitching used parliamentary privilege to suggest to the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation that Chau Chak Wing was the wealthy businessman behind an alleged Chinese plot to interfere in Australian elections to install politicians sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.

In February 2022, she and chair Eric Abetz issued a joint statement rejecting an Amnesty International report's "attempts to equate Israel’s efforts to the abhorrent historical practice of apartheid in South Africa".

[27] Following her death, allegations emerged that Kitching had reportedly complained about bullying by Labor's Senate leadership team, consisting of Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said Kitching had made no official complaint about the matter, and said he would not hold an inquiry into the claims.