Americans will likely be ‘a little wary’ of Penny Wong

Americans will likely be “a little wary” of Australia’s new Foreign Minister Penny Wong, one political analyst says.

Americans will likely be “a little wary” of Labor’s Penny Wong, one expert says.

Curtin University political analyst Professor Joe Siracusa said he thought US President Joe Biden would be looking for a “great deal of enthusiasm” from Australia, but Labor’s foreign policy contained a lot of subtlety and nuance.

He said Labor is quite different from the Liberal Party in that it doesn’t support the US as wholeheartedly – it never talks about “all the way LBJ”.

‘They’re much more measured about what’s in it for the Australian national interest,” he said.

Prof Siracusa said Australia wanted guarantees and security in its neighbourhood but the pivot to Asia has not yet happened, noting America took a long time to get out of the wars on terrorism and then got stuck in a war in Europe.

He also noted that Mr Biden was not that popular among Americans and may only be in the position for another two years.

“So I think Labor’s got a lot to think about,” Prof Siracusa said.

“And I think the Americans are going to be a little wary of Penny Wong because she doesn’t look like she’s going to be too enthusiastic. She doesn’t look like she’s going to be part of anybody’s cheering squad.”

Senator Wong was sworn in as Australia’s new Foreign Minister and flew with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Japan for the Quad summit just one day after Labor won Saturday’s election.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP

However, Prof Siracusa said he thought Mr Biden and Mr Albanese would have a great deal of chemistry and were aligned on a lot of things.

“They have the same background, they’re both working class kids who went from nothing to prominence in their countries,” he said.

“They should have a great deal of chemistry, it’s just that one’s going in one direction, one’s going up, and the other’s probably going out.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) with Penny Wong and Richard Marles. Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

Originally published as Americans will likely be ‘a little wary’ of Penny Wong