Carlton Supporters Club

I'm not sure labelling any a politician a bully is derogatory or descriptive.

The Chinese will hate Wong, they can't whisper is Cantonese or Mandarin in her presence, and coming from Malaysia she onto the cultural cons. However, the gig is a tough one for any female as the Chinese are fundamentally sexist.

How come our big brave media never ask the Chinese spokespeople or officials why there aren't more females in the bureaucracy or NPC?

We should be declaring things like calling political figures names (aka Dutton = Voldemort) as a faux par, and not done.

We try to make a statement at societal level regarding bullying, and attacking someone's appearance, sexuality, gender, ethnic background etc should be off limits.

Its very low brow, and these people are role models after all.  We throw the book at AFL footballers for behaving like twats and then give our politicians a pass...  Not cool.

China is currently engaged in high visibility courtship of the Indo-Pacific and Wong is countering with her own hearts and minds tour. Her predecessor Marise Payne was a serious and competent person but she wasn’t performative, either by temperament or design.

Wong isn’t performing either. Her intention is persuasion. As she orbits the region, Australia’s new foreign minister is asking Pacific countries, Indonesia, other south-east Asian nations a specific question – what sort of region do we want to be?

The question affords Australia’s neighbours respect and agency and it also leaves some room for nuance. Not every neighbour views China in the same way Australia does, and not every neighbour’s view is informed and shaped by the security alliance that Australia has sought with the US ever since John Curtin looked to America.

Wong’s open-ended pitch is intended to respect national differences as much as the commonalities. The question is also designed to prompt neighbours to look beyond their immediate material needs, and consider how they would like things to be in the next 10 or 20 years.

Australia’s strategic contrast with Beijing is implied, not stated. China’s courtship engages developing countries at the transactional level – what are your immediate needs and how can partnership with us serve them?


Wong is entirely comfortable in this zone because she is a child of the region. Her own story projects the fundamentals of her message: we all have unique traits but we have shared and blended destinies.

So that’s the personal. When it comes to the political, Wong is a child of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and the doctrine of Asian integration.

But Wong doesn’t govern in times of regional equanimity. China’s regression towards authoritarianism and the escalation of great power competition has handed the current government a more fraught set of dynamics. Albanese and Wong possess the Keating instincts, but they have to tweak and tune the model.

This joint project from Albanese and Wong remains a work in progress.

They are building a naval base in Cambodia and it's clear they intend to isolate Taiwan from other nations and then create a blockade of sorts and make it impossible for them to function and then force a takeover.

It is a relief to see the Fed Govt using diplomacy to thwart Chinese influence. Yes, I know the LNP also used diplomacy: megaphone diplomacy. But maybe building alliances rather than assuming them has some merit.

It is clear Australia’s voice is being heard in the region – and that’s in no small part due to Penny Wong, The Guardian.

I fear it will be choice No 2 where Taiwan will be the new Sudeten land because everyone is running scared of the Chinese muscle and the USA will back off to the Philippines and let China dominate the rest of the Pacific.