Penny Wong

Penelope Ying-Yen Wong (born 5 November 1968) is an Australian politician who has been a senator for South Australia since 2002. A member of the Labor Party, she has served as the minister for foreign affairs and the leader of the Government in the Senate since 2022, and served as a minister in the Rudd, Gillard, and Rudd governments. Born in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, to a Chinese-Malaysian father from the town of Sandakan and an English-Australian mother from Adelaide, Wong was educated at Scotch College prior to attending the University of Adelaide, graduating with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. She then worked as a lawyer and political advisor. Wong entered politics by winning a Senate seat in the 2001 election. Following Labor's victory in the 2007 election, she was appointed Australia's first-ever Minister for Climate Change, going on to represent the country at the landmark 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Following the 2010 election, Wong was moved to become Minister for Finance and Deregulation, and in June 2013, she was elected by her colleagues to become Leader of the Government in the Senate. Following Labor's defeat in the 2013 election, Wong held several roles in the shadow cabinets of both Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese, serving as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate throughout. Upon Labor's victory at the 2022 election, Wong was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, and resumed her role as Leader of the Government in the Senate. In 2008, she became the first Asian-Australian in an Australian cabinet. She was also the first female openly LGBTI Australian federal parliamentarian, and was an instrumental figure in the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017, reversing her previous endorsement of Labor Party policy that had opposed it. On 6 March 2024, Wong became the longest-serving female cabinet minister in the history of the Australian Parliament.