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[80] Allouache gave birth to their second daughter in 2015, at the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital.[81]. Senator Don Farrell backs down on move to SA politics after Premier Jay [42] Brock did back Labor, giving Labor 24 seats and as a result Weatherill formed a minority government giving Labor a total four terms in government. Events; Contact Jay Weatherill. Though a major electoral redistribution in 2016 had seen four Labor seats become notionally Liberal, Labor retained a total of 19 seats at the election. But the group suffered a wrenching split in 2003, on the matter of Bolkus's own future in the Senate. Another - her former Labor club colleague Amy Barrett, who is now a lawyer in Sydney - says Wong was not given to skulduggery. Racism, misogyny and homophobia aside, the aspects of her character that constitute her chief weakness the sometimes ill- judged aggression would likely be more apparent. Weatherill told Frydenberg the Federal Liberal government was the "most anti-SA government in living memory" and claimed the Federal Government's plan for Snowy Hydro 2.0 was a sign of a government in a "white-knuckled panic about national energy policy". Jay Weatherill (@JayWeatherill) | nitter When U.S. bombers visit Australia, the U.S. government does not tell the Australian government whether the aircraft are carrying nuclear weapons. Like Julia Gillard (a friend), Wong has answered internal critics with the most crushingly effective retort available in politics - performance. At Coromandel Valley Primary, Penny and Toby had a terrible time because of the racist bullying they suffered. In these populist times, people tend to see her as what they wish her to be, rather than what she is. In this extract from her biography of Penny Wong, Margaret Simons considers the question everyone has been asking her. [66][67], During a 2023 Senate estimates hearing, Wong was asked about the presence of nuclear weapons aboard nuclear-capable B-52s and B2 Sprits U.S. bombers, which operate regularly out of northern Australia. Freakish powers of a formidable operator - The Sydney Morning Herald Penny Wong and Jay Weatherill Photos Photos - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) talks at the ASC facilities as Australian Senator Penny Wong (L), South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill . Weatherill is married to his wife, Melissa, with whom he has two daughters. Wong describes herself as a social democrat. 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. It was the climate-change portfolio that enabled her to shine on the international stage. Penny Wong Lecture on Climate Change", "Marriage equality movement 'unstoppable', Senator Penny Wong tells Melbourne rally", "Penny Wong on the 'yes' vote that gives her daughters the Australia she wants for them", "Why, oh why can't I have a civil union? Penny shares the same parent with her brother Toby Wong. This is an extract from Penny . There is a Twitter account devoted to her eyebrows. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill stands fast by GST position But it is also a keen assessment of her own talents, limitations and abilities. [58] Weatherill committed $50 million to support the steelworks and called on the Federal Government to commit $100 million, to then be matched by a buyer looking to reform the steelworks. South Australian premier Jay Weatherill says he will consider resigning if outgoing senator Don Farrell is preselected for a safe Labor seat before the March election. Pragmatic Wong, however, was never going to be a very committed Trotskyist. "Penny arrived in 1988. After Weatherill, her relationships were with women. The incoming Liberal government won a total of 25 seats, with crossbench independents holding 3 seats. Chris Wallace is a political historian at ANU and the biographer of Germaine Greer. The two young Wongs moved from Malaysia to Adelaide with their mother when Penny was eight; their father remains overseas, though he and Penny keep in touch. I think she knows how to throw a political punch. She absorbs meaning as well as projecting it. [31] However, Australia's surging dollar hit the manufacturing industry sector in SA, and growth in indicators such as retail sales and house prices fell. [51], In 2015, the Weatherill Government pledged significant funds towards a second building, to be known as the John Chalmers Centre for Transforming Healthcare or 'SAHMRI II', which would house Australia's first proton therapy unit. [82] In July 2019, he was appointed to conduct a review of Federal Labor's loss at the 2019 Australian federal election. [83] In 2021, he was reported to have moved to Perth, Western Australia and be working for Andrew Forrest's Minderoo Foundation, promoting an early childhood development campaign named Thrive by Five. 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. Issues Survey Community Survey. The chapter that follows begins with the romance with Jay Weatherill, toils through descriptions of some of Wong's political allies and friends, and leads to a statement that speculates Wong had been monitoring the progress of the book but was finally stirred into agreeing to be interviewed when she heard that men might be achieving . Penny Wong is an Australian politician who has been public about her sexual orientation. When Penny was eight, her parents separated. [29] The 20132014 budget saw revenue increase, in part due to the privatisation of SA Lotto to Tatts Group for $427 million,[30] and of forests in the State's south-east to international company The Campbell Group for $670 million. She has been entirely consistent, rejecting the idea in private as in public. 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. She was sworn in on 23 May 2022, only two days after the election and before final results were known, in order to attend a pre-scheduled meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 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. She formed a deep alliance with the "Bolkus Left" - a sociable grouping of ambitious youngsters around the then senator Nick Bolkus, who was a mentor to Wong and whom she thanked in her maiden speech in 2002. [35] She was admitted to the South Australian Bar in 1993. Press Esc to cancel. She then studied and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours at the University of Adelaide, and completed a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the University of South Australia. [72], Wong is a practising Christian, attending Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide. A real advantage for biographers of the dead is that the subject cannot say what they think about the book. The Congress in Adelaide hosted 3500 delegates from around the world, including Elon Musk of SpaceX and NASA. Labor MP for Adelaide . 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. The White Australia policy still existed and in any case Francis faced family obligations requiring his presence back home. Penny Wong. Ten days after the 2001 election, which first took Penny into the Senate, Toby killed himself. But Ms Wong criticised Manus and Nauru, saying it was never envisaged that those facilities should become centres of indefinite detention. Toby joined her at Scotch, where he did less brilliantly. [25][27][28], Through her friendship with David Penberthy, who had also been on exchange in Latin America,[29] Wong joined the Socialist Workers Party-sponsored Committee in Solidarity with Central America and the Caribbean (CISCAC) while at university in 1987, but was not an active member. "I have been told this proposition is under consideration. In two years the agency had created over 9,000 jobs for South Australians. In 2000 Wong applied to have her Malaysian citizenship revoked, which it was in 2001. There are several surprises in Margaret Simons' biography of Penny Wong. [67] The most notable was the statewide 2016 South Australian blackout. [9] Weatherill is from the Labor Left faction. Weatherill said the SA Labor party has been a unified party, while "for better or worse" Senator Farrell was associated with the disunity that led to the destruction of the federal party at the election. [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). Kevin Rudd AC @AmboRudd. A Scotch College scholarship changed Wong's fortunes and unconsciously reconnected her with her mother's Adelaide establishment forebears. Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions. 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.". The relationship thawed and Simons was able to conduct six interviews. Against this, some in the parliamentary party speculate that Kristina Keneallys ascent to the position of deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate is not necessarily good for Penny. One of the Indonesian ministers said to me, if you take the sugar off the table the ants will stop coming.. Twitter users said they were shocked at the dehumanisation of refugees by the ex-Liberal senator. Wong's mother Jane astutely observed of Gillard to her daughter during Gillard's prime ministership, "People would not understand how an atheist and a single woman in a de facto relationship could hold these views", adding to the "idea that she was somehow not authentic".