Senator-elect Kimberley Jane Elizabeth Kitching just loves winning. When it happens, her mouth literally explodes ear-to-ear with a supercilious Luna Park-like grin – as if she has just swallowed the last note of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

She was doing it a lot on Tuesday night when a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament unanimously endorsed her to replace the retiring Stephen Conroy as the Labor Party’s nominated Senator for Victoria in the Federation Chamber of the 45^th Parliament.