Penny Wong

<p><strong>An updated and extended edition of the bestselling biography of one of the most talented poised and respected Australian politicians</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>'What Simons has excavated from the background of this extraordinary Australian should be cause for great pride and celebration.' -Mandy Sayer <em>The Weekend Australian</em></p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Senator Penny Wong is an extraordinary Australian politician. Resolute self-possessed and a penetrating thinker on subjects from climate change to foreign affairs she is admired by members of parliament and the public from across the political divide.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>In this first-ever biography of Wong acclaimed journalist Margaret Simons traces her story: from her early life in Malaysia to her student activism in Adelaide her time in the turbulent Rudd and Gillard governments her key role as a voice of reason in the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage - and a new chapter on her elevation to the post of foreign minister in the Albanese government. What emerges is a picture of a leader for modern Australia a cool-headed and cautious yet charismatic figure of piercing intelligence with a family history linking back to Australia's colonial settlers and to the Asia-Pacific.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Drawing on exclusive interviews with Penny Wong and her Labor colleagues parliamentary opponents and close friends and family this is a scintillating insight into an Australian politician without precedence.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Shortlisted 2021 National Biography Award</p><p class=ql-align-justify>Longlisted 2020 Walkley Book Awards</p><p class=ql-align-justify>Longlisted 2020 Australian Book Industry Awards Biography Book of The Year</p><p class=ql-align-justify>A Readings Best Australian Nonfiction Book of 2019</p>