Alumni stars of the Senate

In his later years as a Gawler High student, he crossed paths with State and Federal Members of Parliament and the local mayor. From those encounters he developed a sense of civic duty. “In those days, Gawler still had a strong flavour of country town about it, and the ethos of rural communities, with engagement in local organisations and proximity to local leaders, was significant.” With those seeds being planted from an early age, Birmingham entered into student politics while studying Economics at the University of Adelaide. He was President of the Adelaide University Liberal Club from 1993 to 1994 and became a key member of the Young Liberals in South Australia throughout most of the ’90s.

“I could take that interest in policy, events and politics that had come about from those early years with Nan, and see a practical pathway to give effect to it, by virtue of those who were serving the community in elected roles,” said Senator Birmingham.

The call of political work proved so strong that he left his university studies (later returning to complete an MBA) to become an electorate officer for Senator Robert Hill. After time as a political staffer in both Federal and State politics, and management roles with wine and hotel industry bodies, Birmingham made the transition into politics when he was elected to the Senate in 2007 – becoming the youngest member of the Senate at the time of his appointment. Senator Birmingham has gone on to make major contributions to the nation within the Coalition Government, as Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, and now as Minister for Finance.

“All opportunities to serve are incredible ones, and present enormous honour in representing your state, the party, and being able to make, hopefully, a positive impact and difference,” Among those impacts are many that involve championing important South Australian and national issues, such as managing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, supporting defence industries, school funding and improving educational outcomes, and securing and implementing the Indonesia-Australia free trade agreement.

But it’s the current pandemic that brings the connection between policy, events and politics into sharp focus. “None of us would go into politics and the parliament to respond to a global pandemic,” he said. “But it is an event that is thrown at you, and at those times of crisis, if you have a deep conviction to your values, and a sufficiently deep sense of service to your country, then you see it as a responsibility to step up and push through the difficult times and try to do ultimately what you hope is best for the country.”

“I’m very conscious I’m the first woman to hold the position from either side. I'm very grateful also that on the Labor side the three most senior people – the Senate leader, the Deputy and what we call the Manager – are all women: myself, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher. So that makes a real change from when I first went into the Senate, where those positions were generally or had always been held by men,” she said.

At the age of eight, Penny Wong migrated to Australia with her mother – an event that set her on the path to political life. “I think at a deeply personal level, the experience of prejudice and discrimination because of being Asian, when I arrived in this country, certainly was a formative experience. And my mother has always been somebody who sought a decent, just, compassionate society so I think I was imbued with those sorts of values around social justice and equality and inclusion. At a personal level, I always knew I wanted to do something to try to make our community and our world a better place in whatever way I could.”