Following Labor's defeat in the 2013 election, Wong held several roles in the shadow cabinets of both Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese, serving as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate throughout.

Upon Labor's victory at the 2022 election, Wong was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, and resumed her role as Leader of the Government in the Senate.

[1] She was also the first female openly LGBTI Australian federal parliamentarian, and was an instrumental figure in the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017, reversing her previous endorsement of Labor Party policy that had opposed it.

[7] Penelope Ying-Yen Wong[8] was born on 5 November 1968 in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, which had become part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

[9] Her parents were Jane (née Chapman) (died 2024), an English Australian whose forebears first reached South Australia on Cygnet in 1836,[10] and Francis Wong (1941–2023), a Chinese-Malaysian architect-cum-town-planner of mixed Cantonese[11] and Hakka[12] descent who hailed from Sandakan, the former capital and second-largest city or town located in the state's east coast.

[22] After starting at Coromandel Valley Primary School, Wong gained a scholarship to Scotch College, Adelaide, where she studied chemistry, physics and mathematics.

During her time at Scotch College, Wong toured New Caledonia as part of her French-language studies, performed in school productions of plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author, and co-captained the hockey team.

[29] Wong's connections with CISCAC brought her in contact with a broader group of left-wing activists who opposed the Hawke Labor government's planned changes to university fees.

In a July 1988 election, Wong won a position on the board of the Adelaide University Union as part of the newly formed Progressive Education Team.

Wong joined the Labor Party that day; she credits her decision to her conversation with Boswell, and the Liberal-National Coalition's new "One Australia" policy opposing multiculturalism and Asian immigration.

During 1995 and 1996, Wong acted as an advisor to the CFMEU and to the newly elected New South Wales state government, specializing in the area of forest policy in the middle of the fierce 1990s environmental battles over logging in NSW.

[37][38] Wong ran for pre-selection for the Senate in 2001, and was selected for the top position on the Labor Party's South Australian ticket.

[55] Following the 2019 Labor leadership contest, Wong retained her positions as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs in the new cabinet of Anthony Albanese.

[56] At this point she was named part of Albanese's four-person ALP leadership team, along with Richard Marles and Kristina Keneally.

[61][62][63][64] On 16 June 2022, Wong visited New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to reaffirm bilateral relations and cooperation in the areas of climate change, indigenous and Indo-Pacific issues.

Wong also stated that her government would consider New Zealand's concerns about Australia's Section 501 deportation policy, which had strained relations between the two countries.

[65][66] During a 2023 Senate estimates hearing, Wong was asked about the presence of nuclear weapons aboard nuclear-capable B-52s and B2 Spirits U.S. bombers, which operate regularly out of northern Australia.

[70] But, in August 2024, she was among world leaders who condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's statement around 'starving' Palestinians in Gaza until hostages are returned.

[79][80] Opinion polling undertaken by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in December 2023 also found Wong to be the most liked politician in the country.