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AN INCONVENIENT SENATOR
When it comes to Senator Penny Wong, it’s safe to say I’m evenly split: One half respects and admires her, the other finds her very frustrating.
The respectful side sees a person who has achieved much against many odds - a Chinese-born lesbian, working incredibly hard in an Anglo, heterosexual male-dominated industry and rising to hold a senior ministerial portfolio. Wong is one of the sharpest, classiest and most unflappable parliamentary performers, which no doubt gets up the nose of some of the more racist and homophobic old boys with whom she shares oxygen in the Senate.
By contrast, the frustrated side sees, as I did on the ABC’s Q&A last week, a cold party machine operative trotting out Labor’s opposition to same-sex marriage, without any personal reflection or qualification – as she has done before and no doubt will do again.
Though Wong’s continued refusal, as a senior government member, to articulate a badly-needed personal queer perspective is disappointing, I can appreciate her position. Not meaning to second-guess her motivation(s), but perhaps given her success in an industry in which on paper she was never destined to get very far, Wong is keen to show the world that she has reached where she is not because of her disadvantageous characteristics, but in spite of them. That is, rather than building a political career along sexual, gender and/or racial identity lines, Wong has become Minister for Climate Change and Water solely due to her talents, intelligence and articulacy. Being a Chinese-born lesbian is of no greater or less relevance than the male gender and heterosexuality of the majority of her peers.
But even this doesn’t excuse Wong from fudging reality in her haste to present herself as Labor Party champion first, queer woman second. Her claim on Q&A that Labor’s opposition to same-sex marriage reflects the majority view of Australians is clearly countered by several legitimate opinion polls putting public support for same-sex marriage at an even split at worst, healthy majority at best. Defending party policy is one thing; flagrant embellishment of the truth is quite another.
Wong of course has as much right to a private life as any other MP, and clearly she’s not willing to adopt a ‘personal is political’ approach to her sexuality that underlies the perspectives of former Democrats Senator Brian Greig and (we hope) incoming Labor Senator Louise Pratt. And from all reports, Wong is one of the strongest internal allies of LGBTI law reform and equality.
More’s the pity, then, that she refuses to carry her admirable work beyond the closed doors of cabinet meetings, and into public forums, where she could easily inspire a generation of young women to be open, proud, and - perhaps most importantly - vocal, about being queer.
Sam Butler:
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