The Australian’s Australian of the Year: A true Australian working for all Australians

After she has undertaken diplomatic visits to 24 countries since Labor’s election victory in May, no one could question Penny Wong’s work ethic, talent and commitment.

Labor senator and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: AFP

After she has undertaken diplomatic visits to 24 countries since Labor’s election victory in May, no one could question the work ethic, talent and commitment of Australia’s 40th foreign minister.

When Penny Wong assumed the role she became the country’s first foreign minister to have been born outside Australia, as she vowed to re-engage Australia’s Pacific neighbours and stand up to Chinese aggression in the region.

“I’ve become Foreign Minister at a time when our region faces unprecedented challenges, but we will face these challenges together,” she said on her first day in the job. “We want to help build a stronger Pacific family. That is why we will do more, but we will also do it better.”

In the eight months since Labor’s election win, the 54-year-old has maintained a punishing travel schedule, with 28 overseas trips to 24 countries.

In December, she was leading discussions in Tokyo and Washington, and spearheading the bipartisan delegation to Micronesia, Palau and Vanuatu a week later.

A month earlier, she welcomed the release of detained Australian economist Sean Turnell from a Myanmar prison, after she joined leaders of the Association of South-East Asia Nations in warning its military junta to implement a peace plan or face being excluded from all regional meetings.

Her biggest achievement came late last month when she met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, in the first visit of an Australian foreign minister to China in four years.

In that meeting – which coincided with the 50th anniversary of official Sino-Australia diplomatic relations – Senator Wong pushed for the release of detained Australians, Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun and the easing of Chinese trade barriers against Australian exports. She also stressed the need for China to ­respect human rights and international law.

Penny Wong and Wang Yi.

Asked what the meeting meant for Sino-Chinese relations, the Foreign Minister memorably replied: “The ice thaws, but slowly.”

Born in 1968, Senator Wong moved from Malaysia to Australia when she was eight, settling in Adelaide with her Malaysian father and Australian mother.

“The experience of prejudice and racism at school has no doubt formed my desire to try to make things better,” she said in a 2014 interview. “I seek a nation that all Australians can share, regardless of race.”

In her maiden address to parliament in 2001, Senator Wong said: “I remember returning from Malaysia after visiting my family there during this time (1990s). When the aeroplane wheels hit the tarmac, I recall feeling like this really was my country – not just in my heart, but that I was included and that our national identity was for me as well. Nationhood is so much about a shared history and a belief in a shared future.”

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 20.