Penny Wong: Passion and Principle

An updated and extended edition of the bestselling biography of one of the most talented, poised and respected Australian politicians

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.

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.

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.

Shortlisted, 2021 National Biography Award
Longlisted, 2020 Walkley Book Awards
Longlisted, 2020 Australian Book Industry Awards, Biography Book of The Year
A Readings Best Australian Nonfiction Book of 2019

About the Author

Margaret Simons is an award-winning journalist and the author of thirteen books, including biographies of Tanya Plibersek and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser; the latter won the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize at the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She won the 2015 Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism and has been honoured with several Quill Awards for Journalistic Excellence.