After graduating, she took a full-time organiser position there just as they were amalgamating with the CFMEU. She is a lesbian. During her time at Scotch College, Wong toured New Caledonia as part of her French language studies, performed in school productions of plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author, and co-captained the hockey team. This is an extract from Penny Wong: Passion and Principle, the biography by Margaret Simons. [76] In 2010, Wong was selected by readers of Samesame website as one of the 25 most influential lesbian Australians. Her defenders say this attitude is unfair, and that Wong, already in the Senate, did not advance at Bolkus's expense; Bolkus declined to comment this week. She was barely 18 when she seized control of the campus Labor club at the University of Adelaide; her methodical destruction of the existing power structure there gave an early glimpse of her freakish powers. The better answer is that she has never aspired to the job. The opposition is now dominated by her allies. It also shows why Wong is not, and was never going to be, prime minister as many people, Wong excluded, hoped, though not for the reasons you may imagine. We tend to idealise politicians who appear different from the pack, and then tear them down when they inevitably disappoint. She joined the ALP and has been on its left ever since. Look, I think with the benefit of hindsight we probably got much more wound up in student politics than we really needed to, but isn't that what you do when you're young?". [53], Following Labor's defeat at the 2013 Australian federal election, Wong was elected Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Weatherill is married to his wife, Melissa, with whom he has two daughters. If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. She is both principled and pragmatic. A periodic flirtation with cigarettes is about as close as she gets to formal vice. This is a good book with the right balance of personal journey and labour history to show how contemporary politics works and how it doesn't work. [72], In 2017, after revelations that upstream states had not been complying with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Weatherill requested that the Federal Government undertake a judicial enquiry or Royal Commission to determine who was to blame for water theft and whether upstream states had been complicit. As prime minister, selling the government message and performing in public would be an unavoidable and dominant responsibility. HE WAS always one to have a girlfriend, according to Joy. [85], Weatherill is married to Melissa, and they have two young daughters. And now she is one of Kevin Rudd's most senior cabinet ministers, charged with driving an international consensus on climate change, and a domestic consensus on water management. During the discussion of taking refugees from Central America, Mr Birmingham said it was important to take the most needy, the most worthy. [1] Wong entered politics by winning a Senate seat in the 2001 election. In December 2007, in the wake of the Labor Party victory in the 2007 election, Wong was appointed to the Cabinet of Australia in the first Rudd government as the Minister for Climate Change, the first person to hold this role in an Australian Cabinet. Her grandmother was Buddhist, her father identified as Catholic and her mother was raised a Methodist. "[77][78][79][80], Peter Malinauskas became Leader of the Opposition and succeeded Weatherill who had resigned as Labor leader, with Susan Close as deputy, following a Labor caucus meeting on 9 April 2018. Wong has been described by her biographer as "principled, intellectual, private, restrained and sane". This was her fathers home region, where his Chinese ancestors had moved in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Kevin Rudd AC @AmboRudd. Wong brought her mother, Jane Chapman, and her partner, Sophie Allouache - a former University of Adelaide Students' Association president - to Monday's swearing-in ceremony at Yarralumla. #samesexmarriage #qanda, Jay Weatherill said it as it is, pass the legislation now. But Ms Wong criticised Manus and Nauru, saying it was never envisaged that those facilities should become centres of indefinite detention. When Penny was eight, her parents separated. Along with Wong and Mark Butler, now another prominent Labor frontbencher, the trio became part of what was known as the 'Bolkus Left'. And, around Albanese, Penny Wongs allies and collaborators are grouping. Campbell Newman. The White Australia policy still existed and in any case Francis faced family obligations requiring his presence back home. PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has exploited divisions between Premier Jay Weatherill and Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to fend off Labor attacks on tax reform and education funding. Wong quickly transitioned from student politics to being active in the Labor Party at state level, and then nationally with the help of powerful supporters such as Nick Bolkus. At the time Holden directly employed 1,600 people in its Elizabeth plant in South Australia, with a total of 3,000 job losses predicted through the supply chain. [49][50], In February 2013, Wong was elected as the ALP's deputy Senate leader following the resignation of Chris Evans, thus becoming Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate. [43], Weatherill joined with Liberal premiers proclaiming he would lead a national campaign against the then federal Abbott government's 2014 federal budget. [46][47] At this time, Wong said she agreed with the Labor Party policy on marriage[48] because there was a, "cultural, religious and historical view of marriage being between a man and a woman". [68], The plan also included new legislative powers to ensure the South Australian energy minister could compel companies to turn on generators in peak demand periods. Simons notes Wongs long-term partners, firstly her five-year relationship with Jay Weatherill, future premier of South Australia, which began while she was at university and he was an industrial officer for the Australian Workers Union. [80] Allouache gave birth to their second daughter in 2015, at the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital.[81]. Their relationship began while Wong was at university and Weatherill was an industrial officer for the Australian Workers Union. [45], Shortly after the commencement of the Gillard government in June 2010, Julia Gillard promoted Wong to succeed Lindsay Tanner as Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Updated: November 15, 2012 Who is Penny Wong's first boyfriend Jay Weatherill? . [67] The most notable was the statewide 2016 South Australian blackout. The many surprises in the life of Penny Wong and why she'll never be PM. On 21 January 2013, Weatherill became Treasurer of South Australia and took other various portfolios following a cabinet reshuffle triggered by the resignation of two members of his ministry. I think the best thing we can do now is let Australians have their say, and hope and believe as I do there will be a strong yes vote and it will be a really positive thing for gay and lesbian Australians to get that public endorsement of a change that actually then comes into law., TAKE THE SUGAR OFF THE TABLE, THE ANTS WILL STOP COMING. Wong worked for Butler as a legal officer for three years at the union before she won Senate preselection, and was a barrister and solicitor at the Adelaide firm Duncan and Hannon for three years before that. Later that year, at the Tampa election won by John Howard, Wong was elected to the Australian Senate. Wong's great-great-great-grandparents Samuel and Charlotte Chapman and their baby daughter were at SA's Proclamation Ceremony in 1836, making Wong more South Australian "blue blood" than Julie Bishop, though the money had run out by Jane's generation. Type above and press Enter to search. Jay Weatherill is an Australian politician who was the 45th Premier of South Australia. Like Julia Gillard (a friend), Wong has answered internal critics with the most crushingly effective retort available in politics - performance. In 2016 she was made shadow minister for foreign affairs. How long did Penny Wong and Jay Weatherill date? In the six and a half years he led the Government, Jay was one of the most . [31] One month later, while protesting outside a state Labor Party convention at the Adelaide Trades Hall, Wong had a conversation with Young Labor member Lois Boswell, who told her that "if you wanted to really make a difference, you had to be inside the room having that battle." I suppose I think people have very different ways in which they express their spirituality. They are just her major strengths," he says. [50], Jay Weatherill also set up Investment Attraction South Australia in 2015, attracting international companies including Technicolour, Boeing, Kaufland, Datacom and VeroGuard. [13][14][15][16][17] In early August 2011 Weatherill's attempts at contacting Rann on his trade mission to India had been met with silence, leaving the party leadership in limbo until Rann's return to Australia. This is an extract from Penny . He said he offered to stand aside for him the day after the federal election when it was clear Farrell would lose his seat. [9], Wong was born on 5 November 1968 in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, which had become part of the Federation of Malaysia five years earlier. Simons shows Wong, in contrast, as able to operate in the same challenging environment and yet be true to herself and her values. Bill Shorten. Labor Senator for South Australia. [36] Weatherill also released the French Engagement Strategy, a plan to strengthen economic and business ties with France, also focusing on broader opportunities in areas such as education, tourism and the arts. The reporter is also a University of Adelaide alumnus. We should all be grateful that Simons has given us this clear, well-researched, and comprehensive biography, and that Wong eventually contributed the personal memories and views that round it out. Arriving at the University of Adelaide in 1987 as a first-year arts student, the politically conscious Wong dabbled with a couple of environmental groups and the left-wing group CISCAC - the Committee in Solidarity with Central America and the Caribbean. "They had ambition, vitality, energy - they were a generation that really wanted to make a difference," Bolkus recalls. Weatherill is a stand-out political performer among premiers and the biggest player in the boutique-size world of South Australian politics but few doubt that his skills would travel, if only he were prepared to do likewise. [63], Jay Weatherill, along with then Health Minister Jack Snelling, opened the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in early September 2017. Wong does not discuss the circumstances of this dreadful blow, beside an enigmatic promise to him in her maiden speech: "Your life and death ensure that I shall never forget what it is like for those who are truly marginalised. Press Esc to cancel. Hieu Van Le was announced on 26 June 2014 as the next Governor of South Australia to replace Kevin Scarce. In 1989 Wong was elected general secretary of the university Labor Club; others viewed her as the one in charge. Principled and pragmatic, charming and cutting: Labor senator Penny Wong. At the University of Adelaide, Wong studied law and political science. The Labor leadership team: (L-R) Senate leader Penny Wong, deputy Senate leader Kristina Keneally, opposition leader Anthony Albanese and deputy opposition leader Richard Marles. Were working to restore it. But in private she has a warmth and humour which belies her reputation; there is a touch of goofiness, if you can imagine that. Between 1987 and 1990, he worked for the Australian Workers' Union. She also said the government wanted a greater U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Angela Woollacott is the Manning Clark Professor of History at the Australian National University, an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Australian Academy of Humanities, and a former president of the Australian Historical Association. Penny Wong: could Australia accept a gay Asian woman as PM? Her natural strength is policy and strategy. [30] Wong's connections with CISCAC brought her in contact with a broader group of left-wing activists who opposed the Hawke Labor government's planned changes to university fees. Penny Wong delivers condolence speech for colleague Kimberley Kitching
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