Malaysian-Australian politician and activist Penelope Ying-Yen Wong, also known as Penny Wong, was BOTD in 1968. Born in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia to a Chinese-Malaysian father and an English-Australian mother, she was raised in Adelaide. After studying at the University of Adelaide, she became an industrial relations lawyer and political advisor for the New South Wales state government. In 2001, she won a seat in the Senate, the upper house of Australia’s federal government, becoming one of the first Australians of Asian descent elected to high office. She publicly came out as lesbian a month after assuming her Senate seat in 2002, making her one of the world’s first openly queer politicians. Following the Labour Party’s victory in the 2001 federal elections, she was appointed Australia’s first Minister for Climate Change, going on to become Minister for Finance and Deregulation and Leader of the Government in the Senate. In 2017, she became a central figure in campaigns to legalise same-sex marriage, reversing her previous endorsement of the Labor Party’s anti-reform policy. Following Labour’s re-election in the 2022 federal elections, she was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, controversially supporting the government’s decision to formally recognise Palestine as a state and declare Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank as illegal under international law. Widely admired for her composed and principled approach to politics, she has frequently been cited as Australia’s most liked and trusted politician. Wong is married to her long-term partner Sophie Allouache, with whom she has two children.