She is a practising Christian. Since Francis was Chinese-Malay, the family faced discrimination in Malaysia, too: the constitution gave official preference to ethnic Malays in education and employment. During 1995 and 1996, Wong acted as an advisor to the CFMEU and to the newly elected New South Wales state government, specializing in the area of forest policy in the middle of the fierce 1990s environmental battles over logging in NSW. A boyhood dream was to be a professional tennis player. [43], Weatherill joined with Liberal premiers proclaiming he would lead a national campaign against the then federal Abbott government's 2014 federal budget. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), she has been a Senator for South Australia since 2002. "There was a bit of a problem with blood," she explains briskly. One told me that repair work had to be done after a Wong display of temper against her own. Jay Weatherill retweeted. Butler is the former secretary of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union in South Australia; he has also served on Labor's national executive committee and is viewed as an exceptional talent federally for Labor (a fact which would no doubt have puzzled his great-grandfather, the 1920s Liberal premier Sir Richard Butler, were he still around). She also remarked on Pauline Hansons right to air her views, saying: No country has ever made herself safer by attacking a particular ethnic minority. [19][20] Weatherill was then sworn in as the 45th Premier of South Australia on 21 October 2011. Jay Weatherill (@JayWeatherill) | nitter Biography Penny Wong Margaret Simons Black Inc., . He matriculated in 1981 as dux of the school. Many people have urged her to consider it over the years, including some of her closest allies and friends. [55][56], In April 2016, Whyalla's steelworks owned by Arrium was placed in voluntary administration by its directors due to significant debts. [2], Weatherill defeated the incumbent Labor member Murray De Laine for Labor preselection in the electorate of Cheltenham at the 2002 election and went on to retain the seat for Labor. Penny Wong delivers condolence speech for colleague Kimberley Kitching Staying in Adelaide was not an option, Simons explains. After Weatherill, her relationships were with women. Check out the latest pictures, photos and images of Jay Weatherill and Penny Wong. Her natural strength is policy and strategy. "She was totally focused on politics, right from when she started," says Kris Hanna, another comrade who ended up in the South Australian Parliament - he now serves as an independent, having defected from Labor several years ago. All rights reserved. This is simply a question of respect. [73] Later in 2018, after the change of state government, the Federal Government barred Murray Darling Basin Authority officials from appearing at the Royal Commission to give evidence. I am a passionate and enthusiastic writer, covering entertainment, sports, and politics. [26], Weatherill allowed a conscience vote for the Greens' 2013 South Australian Gay Marriage bill in August 2012. Theyre people with infinitely more complex issues., Philip Purcell added: They are fleeing for their lives, not looking for sugar.. [28] However, the mine remains operational, employing 2500 people. By the following March, she had organised the numbers and there was the largest ever Labor Club meeting - the union theatre was packed to the rafters. In 1988 she swivelled her gun turrets towards the Labor Club, which had been colonised two or three years earlier by George Karzis, a cheerful right-wing headkicker who has since worked in senior advisory roles for state and federal Labor politicians. Updated: November 15, 2012 Rollo Armstrong children: Does Rollo Armstrong have kids? A plebiscite is all about the internal politics of the Liberal Party, not about delivering marriage equality, she went on. 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. Wong was born in 1968 in the northern Borneo city of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah. 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. [52], In the 201516 Budget, Weatherill spruiked his government's plan to abolish stamp duties on business transactions and introduce the nation's lowest payroll tax rate. Media Statements Opinion Pieces Transcripts Speeches. In Wongs view, this legitimated the kind of racist abuse she and Toby had received. There is a cult of Penny Wong. I think it was important for the Labor party to have another woman in the leadership. Others, perhaps falling into the misogynistic trope that senior women must necessarily be adversaries, suggest that for the next three years Wong may have to look over her shoulder. Following Stephen Conroy's resignation and the beginning of the second Rudd government, she also became the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Peter Malinauskas succeeded Weatherill as Labor leader on 9 April. [2] Later, Weatherill would hold portfolios such as Housing (20042008), Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (20062010), Early Childhood and Development (20082011), Environment and Conservation (20082010) and Education (20102011). Weatherill claimed it would reduce power prices directly for those involved, and indirectly for others through increased competition in the market. Chris Wallace is a political historian at ANU and the biographer of Germaine Greer. Family friends included Muslims and members of the local indigenous people, the Dayaks, of whom some were Christian, some Muslim, while others practised their original indigenous religion. "We don't want that in state parliament," he said. But she has a sort of dignity and authority about it," Hanna says. It was reported that the transition from the original Royal Adelaide Hospital to the new site was smooth with 131 patients transferred in the first day of operation. In other words, she is well suited to the leadership of the party in the Senate. Moving a condolence motion in the Senate . Weatherill represented the House of Assembly seat of Cheltenham as a member of the South Australian Labor Party from the 2002 election to 17 December 2018, when he retired. Wong joined the Labor Party that day; she credits her decision to her conversation with Boswell, and the Liberal-National Coalition's new "One Australia" policy opposing multiculturalism and Asian immigration. Also Appearing: Hillary Clinton, Jay Weatherill, Penny Wong, Rod Equid . Simons notes Wong's 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. Despite her talents, it is easy to imagine this happening to Penny Wong if she were in the top job. He wanted to stay on, but was defeated by a coalition of friends and foes. During 2013 it became the longest-serving state Labor government in South Australian history, and in addition went on to win a fourth four-year term at the 2014 election. Despite all their differences over same-sex marriage, Penny Wong never had to fear that Farrell aspired to her job as Senate leader. "They had ambition, vitality, energy - they were a generation that really wanted to make a difference," Bolkus recalls. In 2000 Wong applied to have her Malaysian citizenship revoked, which it was in 2001. Mainly of other people," says one party to that upheaval. One of the Indonesian ministers said to me, if you take the sugar off the table the ants will stop coming.. What you tend to end up with is a riot of ballot-stuffing, vote-rigging, dirt-digging and amateur character assassination, washed down with endless schooners of beer. Later that year, at the Tampa election won by John Howard, Wong was elected to the Australian Senate. 'What on earth are we doing?': Jay Weatherill brings down house [68], Polling conducted by the The Australia Institute in 2019 found that Wong was the most trusted federal legislator, though then-Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern topped the poll altogether. Penny Wong warns racism and hate speech in parliament threaten democracy, Australians faith in politics has collapsed how can we reimagine democracy? Wong has been described by her biographer as "principled, intellectual, private, restrained and sane". The biography covers Wongs personal life, albeit very briefly compared to the politics, by far its main focus. In stores 1 October. After Weatherill, her relationships were with women. Australians already struggling to find a doctor have been warned that things are about to get frighteningly worse. [63], Jay Weatherill, along with then Health Minister Jack Snelling, opened the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in early September 2017. He is currently retired and announced his intention to retire from Parliament on December 6, 2018. Wong gently disagrees, but says she never thought of a House of Representatives seat in any event: "I actually think that the house of review is the chamber where more detailed legislative work is done.". [20], In 2011/2012, Weatherill and then Environment Minister Paul Caica brought together irrigators, business, River Murray communities and South Australians more generally to fight for a better deal for the River and South Australia. This is an extract from Penny Wong: Passion and Principle, the biography by Margaret Simons. In 1988 John Howard, leader of the opposition, announced the Coalitions new immigration policy of One Australia to reduce Asian immigration. In late 1996, Wong, at the invitation of the SA ALPs left, returned to Adelaide to seek preselection for the Senate. We would not have stayed in government without Albo. It provides a fascinating account of Wong's long campaign inside the Labor tent for marriage equality while still observing the party's collective strictures. He held that position from October 21, 2011, until March 19, 2018. After Such went on medical leave for a brain tumour without indicating his support, political commentators indicated that Brock would likely back Labor by reason of 'political stability'. 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. His blunt statement drew cheers from the audience and an impressed reaction from social media. Bennett had a social ease that smoothed the way in Wong's preselection campaign, as well as the enthusiasm to overcome Wong's caution about the bid. Margaret Simons' picture of this impressive politician in Penny Wong: Passion and Principle transcends reductionist identity labels, as important as being a woman, being in a same-sex partnership and being of Asian-Australian heritage are to Wong's story. Penny Wong. [69] In March 2022, Wong was named Australia's most trusted politician in a study by Roy Morgan Research. "She learned to control her emotions and fiercely protect her thoughts, not to let those outside her family see what was going on inside." [49], In 2015 Jay Weatherill announced that the state government would hold an annual 'Simplify Day' to initiate the reduction and removal of unnecessary regulation and legislation. The reporter is also a University of Adelaide alumnus. [75], Wong is a lesbian and came out publicly a month after she assumed her Senate seat in 2002. 2023 Ghanafuo.com & DM Network. Please try again later. Published by Black Inc. Books. However, Wong has two children with her current domestic partner, Sophie Allouache named Alexandra and Hannah. Surveys. Senator Natasha Stott Despoja was a contemporary, as well as Wong's then boyfriend, Jay Weatherill, now a senior minister in Mike Rann's South Australian Government. South Australian premier says senator is threat to him the 'very last impression' the Labor party wants to give electorate. Share Jay Weatherill quotations about past and decisions. Australian politician (born 1968), Minister for Foreign Affairs, *The Liberal and National totals include members of the, Gillard and Second Rudd governments (20102013), openly-LGBTI Australian federal parliamentarian, become part of the Federation of Malaysia, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, Australian Industrial Relations Commission, "The Hon. Wee Willie Harris wife: Is Wee Willie Harris married? BiographyPenny WongMargaret SimonsBlack Inc., $34.99. Along the way, we learn about Wongs beliefs (she believes in God and was baptised in the Uniting Church as an adult, but accepts all religions as equal) and values her absorption of her fathers emphasis on education and ambition, and her mothers feminism and sense of social justice. I think she knows how to throw a political punch. She was the first woman to be elected as ALP Senate leader, and the first woman to serve as Leader of the Government in the Senate. [2], Labor was in government from 2002, with Weatherill leading the Labor government since a 2011 leadership change from Mike Rann. Wong also stated that her government would consider New Zealand's concerns about Australia's Section 501 deportation policy, which had strained relations between the two countries. [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. wondered her old comrade Barrett, with interest, when contacted this week. In two years the agency had created over 9,000 jobs for South Australians. [81], In June 2019, he was appointed as an industry professor at the University of South Australia. Some of this was through suspension of major works programs such as the electrification of the Gawler and Outer Harbor rail lines, and redevelopments of Modbury Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. [46], In 2015, Weatherill initiated the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission to investigate opportunities and risks associated with expanding the state's involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle. Senator Don Farrell backs down on move to SA politics after Premier Jay Early Life and Education ADVERTISEMENT That was by dint of his capacity, his procedural understanding, his rhetorical capacity and his personal relationships. In caucus, she says, Albanese is consultative and strategic. [2] In 2008, she became the first Asian-Australian in an Australian Cabinet. Finally, well into Simonss writing, she was invited to Senator Wongs office, where Wong gave her a hard time. Penny Wong: Passion and principleby Margaret Simons, Black Inc., $34.99 pb, 368 pp, 9781760640859. It portrays the kind of person both sides of politics need more of: intelligent, focused, hard-working, with a consistent set of values and, crucially, aware of and able to work within the realities of politics, including the ability to play a long game.
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