Penny Wong is an Australian politician, and a Senator for South Australia since 2002. She has served as Senate leader of the Australian Labor Party since 2013.
Following the ALP's victory in the federal election in May 2022, Ms Wong became the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate under the Albanese Government. She is the third woman, and the first woman of colour, to hold the Foreign Affairs portfolio. Ms Wong was previously Australia's first Minister for Climate Change from 2007 to 2010 in the Rudd Government, and Minister for Finance from 2010 to 2013 in the Gillard and second Rudd governments.
Born in Malaysia to an Australian mother and Malaysian father, Ms Wong was educated at Scotch College in Adelaide and then attended the University of Adelaide where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.
Prior to entering the Senate, Ms Wong was a lawyer and political advisor. In 2008, she became the first Asian-born member of 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.
