Senator Penny Wong has created a new historic record by serving 2700 days in cabinet.
With this record Senator Wong overtook Amanda Vanstone as longest-serving female cabinet minister in Australian history.
Ms Vanstone spent seven-and-a-half years in Cabinet during the reign of former prime minister John Howard.
Senator Wong was born in the Malaysia and her family moved to Australia in 1976, when she was eight years old, and settled in Adelaide.
She studied law and arts at the University of Adelaide and worked for the trade union covering furniture industry employees.
Senator Wong was elected to the Senate for the Australian Labor Party in 2001 and has been re-elected four times – in 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2022.
Senator Wong was first appointed Minister for Climate Change and Water in the Rudd Government in 2007 and then in 2010, she was appointed as Minister for Finance and Deregulation.
In 2013 Senator Wong was elected Leader of the Government in the Senate and, after the change of government in 2013, became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate – the first woman to hold either of these roles.
She served as Shadow Foreign Minister for six years before the election of the Albanese Government in 2022, when she was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Senator Wong lives in Adelaide with her partner and their daughters. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, shopping at the Central Market and, from time to time, enjoying one of South Australia’s great wines.
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