Penelope "Penny" Ying-yen Wong (traditional Chinese: 黃英賢; simplified Chinese: 黄英贤; pinyin: Huáng Yīngxián; born 5 November 1968), Australian Labor Party politician, is the current and first Australian Minister for Climate Change and Water. She has been a member of the Australian Senate since 2002, representing South Australia. Wong is the first openly gay member of the Australian Commonwealth cabinet, and the first Asian-born federal minister.
Wo...
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Penelope "Penny" Ying-yen Wong (traditional Chinese: 黃英賢; simplified Chinese: 黄英贤; pinyin: Huáng Yīngxián; born 5 November 1968), Australian Labor Party politician, is the current and first Australian Minister for Climate Change and Water. She has been a member of the Australian Senate since 2002, representing South Australia. Wong is the first openly gay member of the Australian Commonwealth cabinet, and the first Asian-born federal minister.
Wong was born in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese Hakka father and an Australian mother. She moved to Australia at the age of eight with her mother and brother Toby, after her parents separated. Her brother later committed suicide aged 30, ten days after Penny was elected to the Senate in 2001.
Wong is a practising Christian, attending Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide
After spending a year on exchange in Brazil, Wong studied Arts/Law at the University of Adelaide. When she was 18-years old, she seized control of the Labor...
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