Wong brings a lot of experience to the role, having previously served as climate and finance minister and as shadow foreign minister since 2016. She will need these chops to help a prime minister with little diplomatic experience navigate the spillover from the Ukraine war and an acrimonious relationship with China.
Wong was born in 1968 in Sabah to an Australian-born mother and Chinese Malaysian father. After her parents split up, she moved with her mother and younger brother to Adelaide in South Australia at the age of eight.
Growing up in 1970s Australia as the country was opening up to more non-European migrants, especially refugees from Vietnam, Wong experienced racial discrimination and bullying. She often faced verbal attacks and saw anti-Asian slogans painted outside their home.
A strong sense of injustice drove her to outperform her classmates in academic subjects and on the sports field. She managed to get a scholarship to Scotch College in Adelaide, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.
Wong first sought a career in medicine, but after spending a year at hospitals in Brazil on a volunteer exchange programme she realised she was not cut out for dealing with death and blood. She switched her major from medicine to law and arts at the University of Adelaide, and graduated with honours in 1992.
After working for a trade union and the local government, she was elected to the senate for the Australian Labor Party in 2001. In her maiden speech in parliament the following year, she criticised Prime Minister John Howard’s use of race as a political issue.
“I seek a nation that is truly one nation, one in which all Australians can share, regardless of race,” Wong said.
Wong is also the country’s first openly gay female national politician and was instrumental in legalising same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017. She broke down in tears when the result of the referendum on marriage equality was announced.
She lives with her partner, Sophie Allouache, and the couple are raising two daughters, Alexandra and Hannah.
In 2007, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appointed Wong as minister for climate change and water, making her the first Australian cabinet member to be born in Asia. She went to Bali, Indonesia, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Australia’s behalf.
She was appointed as finance minister in 2010, going on to serve as Labor’s senate leader when the conservative Liberal-National coalition took power in 2013.
Since 2016, she had been the shadow foreign affairs minister. She used her role to attack the government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison over his handling of key diplomatic relationships.
A Roy Morgan survey of 1,409 Australians in March found that Wong was the most trusted politician in Australia. The same poll showed that Morrison was the least trusted.
Neil Thomas, an analyst at Eurasia Group, said Wong would bring “a new dynamism” to the role of foreign minister. As a political force in her party, “Wong’s gravitas would help boost the role of diplomacy in Australia’s China policy.”
Wong has a close friendship with Albanese, who is likely to lean heavily on her for foreign policy.
Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, said China would likely seek to make life difficult for Wong.
“The Chinese government will no doubt try to test her in some fashion. And she will have to respond,” McGregor said. “But I think she’s not inclined to take a soft roll.”
During the election campaign, China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, which is historically close to Canberra, and Wong hinted that her Labor government will retain Australia’s tough stance against Beijing.
“We understand the reality of China’s assertiveness and aggression. We understand that our region has been reshaped,” Wong told reporters on April 23. “We understand that the key to ensuring Australia’s security is securing our region. And that means a foreign policy that is more active and more vigorous in our region.”
She met with counterparts from Japan, the US and India while in Tokyo. She tweeted photos of their meetings, saying that she and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “discussed cooperation to address geostrategic competition in our region, and making action on climate change a hallmark of our Alliance.”
On her first day as foreign minister, she posted a video on Twitter directed at Pacific nations. “Our region faces unprecedented challenges, but we will face them together,” said Wong. “And we will listen because we care what the Pacific has to say.”