Certainly, Wong is known widely within the party for her driving ambition, and her lack of squeamishness about the hard and unattractive side of factional business, of which she saw plenty through the Crean/Latham era. Updated: November 15, 2012 [25] However, the bill was frustrated by Labor's conservative Catholic right, as well as a lack of support by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and faced constitutional issues as expressed by the SA Liberal Party. On the student council he was regarded as one of the school's "leading lights". Mar 31. In other words, she is well suited to the leadership of the party in the Senate. She has a sharp intellect. Authors; . [4][5], Weatherill completed his secondary education at Henley High School. The end result was an additional commitment of 450 gigalitres of environmental water under the Murray Darling Basin Plan. BiographyPenny WongMargaret SimonsBlack Inc., $34.99. of South Australia, particularly as Premier, and to early childhood and tertiary education". Her new book Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2019) was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant. Popular without being populist Penny Wong grills finance department officials. 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. [75], Wong is a lesbian and came out publicly a month after she assumed her Senate seat in 2002. On the other side, she fears what it would mean for her personally. 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. She took a job in industrial law with a firm that represented unions on the left, then moved to the Miscellaneous Workers Union to work with Mark Butler, president of the SA Labor party. [9] Weatherill is from the Labor Left faction. But Weatherill said he did see the senator as a threat to him, which was the "very last impression" the Labor party wanted to give electorate. The biography covers Wongs personal life, albeit very briefly compared to the politics, by far its main focus. When I am not immersed in writing, I spend most of my time reading, learning languages, and catching up on my favorite shows. [34] She also worked part-time for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and won a position on the National Executive of the National Union of Students. "We don't want that in state parliament," he said. #qanda Go Jay Weatherill - There is a simple solution and the audience definitely approves, Jay Weatherill making sense for the first time tonight - just pass the bill! She is charming, but also cutting. [12], In late July 2011, senior figures within Labor had indicated to Rann that both the left and right Labor factions had agreed to replace Rann with Weatherill as party leader. [61] He argued that the GST rate should be increased but he would only support an increase if a compensation package was developed for those earning under $100,000[62], In the 201617 Budget, Weatherill introduced Job Accelerator Grants, providing between $4,000 and $10,000 to businesses for creating new jobs, increasing in the 201718 budget. Follow me on my official Instagram page, @abby_x99. What I find extraordinary is George Christiansen is willing to cross the floor and hold the Government to ransom on high income superannuation tax breaks but no-one in the moderates of the Liberal Party is prepared to put the pressure on and say we want a vote in the Parliament, because thats what the Australian people want. Discover Jay Weatherill famous and rare quotes. [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. When U.S. bombers visit Australia, the U.S. government does not tell the Australian government whether the aircraft are carrying nuclear weapons. 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). Wong, who was at the University of Adelaide with nascent Australian Democrat MP Natasha Stott Despoja and journalists David Penberthy, Samantha Maiden and Annabel Crabb, also has in her past a five-year relationship with the former South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill. Despite all their differences over same-sex marriage, Penny Wong never had to fear that Farrell aspired to her job as Senate leader. [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. She batted off comments from Education Minister Simon Birmingham, who was accused on social media of mansplaining when he told her: Penny, youve got the opportunity now to see this issue resolved. There is a Twitter account devoted to her eyebrows. Joe Hockey. As prime minister, selling the government message and performing in public would be an unavoidable and dominant responsibility. [32] Despite this, the government included funding for the Gawler railway line up to Dry Creek, a number of measures supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, and promised a return to surplus by 20152016. Peter Malinauskas succeeded Weatherill as Labor leader on 9 April. The better answer is that she has never aspired to the job. 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. But the group suffered a wrenching split in 2003, on the matter of Bolkus's own future in the Senate. (modern), Jay Weatherill: Senator Farrell associated with disunity that led to destruction of federal Labor party. The audience roared with laughter as he added: Would you put it on your numberplates? 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 was born to Jane Chapman and Francis Wong. [38], During her legal career (19962002), Wong appeared as counsel in 11 published decisions of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, 15 published decisions of the South Australian Industrial Relations Court, 8 published decisions of the South Australian Industrial Relations Commission, 3 published decisions of the South Australian Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal and 10 published decisions of the South Australian Workers Compensation Tribunal. Technically, Wong was never really "in". I suppose I think people have very different ways in which they express their spirituality. 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. One told me that repair work had to be done after a Wong display of temper against her own. Over the first two Simplify Days (2016 and 2017), the government amended 101 acts and regulations and removed 22 acts altogether. [58][59] Wong is the first Asian Australian and the first openly LGBTI person to hold the office of Australian Foreign Minister. Biography Penny Wong Margaret Simons Black Inc., . [28][44] She accompanied then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Bali for the international climate change talks. I made it clear I don't support this," he told ABC Radio on Friday. They are allies, she says, and Keneally has earned her place. [72], Wong is a practising Christian, attending Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide. Share Jay Weatherill quotations about past and decisions. Weatherill. Please try again later. "They had ambition, vitality, energy - they were a generation that really wanted to make a difference," Bolkus recalls. 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. Before she finished her degree she began work as a paralegal with the Federated Furnishing Trade union. This is simply a question of respect. Her alliance with Mark Butler is enduring, and important to the party. "It's a very private matter. As the ALP digests its recent report on how it lost the 2019 election, some commentators are calling for a change of leadership. She is assumed to be more conventionally left wing than she really is, and somehow above or outside the dirty business of politics when one of the central points of this book is that she is decidedly in the room, inside and of politics. Press Esc to cancel. (This group was founded and run, incidentally, by fellow arts student and enthusiastic campus Trotskyist David Penberthy, who has since moved to the beating heart of Australian conspicuous consumption - Sydney - where he edits The Daily Telegraph.). "You'll be much more successful if you follow." Login Sign Up. Following the 1995 NSW election, she became a policy adviser to a minister in the new Labor government. One of the first things she published as an adult was the On Dit article in which she argued that professional political representation was the most important service. First was her seven-year-relationship with Dascia Bennett, in which she was stepmother to Dascia's two children, and which ended shortly after Wong's election to the Senate. "She is very into the politics. Simons notes that Wongs Liberal opponents have only good things to say about her (as does the cleaner in charge of ministerial offices at Parliament House), and that she is commonly regarded with a mixture of fear and respect. [44] Former Liberal Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith then defected, becoming an independent and entered the Weatherill cabinet. Updated: November 15, 2012 . "I ran it as a non-factional group," recalls Karzis from his Adelaide legal office, breaking off to laugh uproariously before adding: "That is, there was no other faction than mine. The question everyone asks when they know you are writing a book about Penny Wong is whether she will ever be prime minister, and if not, why not. The Congress in Adelaide hosted 3500 delegates from around the world, including Elon Musk of SpaceX and NASA. She is an introvert, in this media-saturated age an insuperable liability in pursuit of the top job. [84], In the 2021 Australia Day Honours, Weatherill was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to the people and Parliament The White Australia policy still existed and in any case Francis faced family obligations requiring his presence back home. "[73] Others in her wider family from Sabah are Buddhist. A real advantage for biographers of the dead is that the subject cannot say what they think about the book. Editor at Ghanafuo.com! Largely, this was about gender balance, with Albanese and Richard Marles as leader and deputy leader in the lower house. His principles are visible in his support of gay rights, long before it was popular. After graduating, she took a full-time organiser position there just as they were amalgamating with the CFMEU. Qanda effect or actually more likeable, Ms Wong backed her fellow Labor politician and university boyfriend, adding: I think Jay made the right point..