Penny Wong is making waves, despite a personal wipeout

Wong’s tenure as foreign affairs minister has not been an unqualified success. The government botched its announcement to no longer recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, revealing the decision on a Jewish holy day and surprising the Israeli government. But there have been big wins, justifying Wong’s intense focus on South-East Asia and the Pacific. It is in these regions, Wong believes, where Australia has the most at stake and can make the biggest difference.

A highlight was the negotiated release of Sydney economist Sean Turnell last month after 650 days in a Myanmar prison. Another came on Wong’s Pacific tour last week when Australia and Vanuatu signed a binding security pact. This was an important achievement given a few years ago there was speculation China could establish a military base on the island country, which sits just 2000 kilometres from Australia.

“I think Penny has used the opportunities presented to her to good effect to date,” opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham says. He notes Pacific nations, in particular, have welcomed Labor’s increased emissions reduction target and its vow to be a global climate change leader.

Some of the strongest criticism of Wong comes from human rights advocates exasperated by the government’s refusal to use targeted sanctions and other diplomatic punishments against repressive regimes. Some grumble about Wong being “captured” by risk-averse public servants in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Earlier this month, Wong imposed Magnitsky-style sanctions on 13 individuals from Russia and Iran, banning them from travelling to Australia and freezing any assets they may hold here. But she has resisted calls from groups like Human Rights Watch Australia to levy similar sanctions against officials from Myanmar and China.

Loading

Similarly, she has rebuffed calls from Iranian-Australians to expel Iran’s ambassador to Australia to protest the regime’s brutal crackdown on women’s rights and pro-democracy protesters.

Wong’s guiding principle for managing Australia’s international affairs is: “We take the world as it is, but we seek to shape it for the better.” First things first, she’s a realist who believes Australia must think strategically about its ability to influence the behaviour of other nations.

“I do feel quite strongly about this,” she says. “It probably derives from my political heritage, which is I’m a progressive, but I’m in the Labor Party. That means you have to have purpose and principle, but you also have to have pragmatism.”

Through most of her political career, Wong’s left faction has been a minority force within Labor. This means she has had to play a long game to get things done, to stay in the room where the big decisions are made even if she doesn’t immediately get her way.

Loading

The fight for marriage equality was a classic example. In 2004, Wong had to vote with Labor to ban same-sex marriage and publicly defend that position even though she disagreed with it. Rather than crusade publicly, she worked behind the scenes at successive Labor conferences to gather the votes to change the party’s position. While in opposition, she worked with Liberal moderates to craft a cross-party bill capable of passing parliament. Eventually, it became law.

She takes the same approach to foreign affairs. While working to secure Turnell’s release, Wong engaged directly with Myanmar’s military regime despite its vicious treatment of protesters and journalists. “We live in a region of the world where most people don’t share our views and values,” she says. “So how do you manage that? It’s not a viable option for a country to just disengage and withdraw from the world. But at the same time, you also have to continue to find ways to be clear about who you are and what our values are.”

During her meeting in Beijing, Wong raised concerns about the treatment of the Uyghurs, deliberately mentioning the ethnic minority by name rather than euphemistically referring to human rights abuses in Xinjiang. But she has not sanctioned Chinese officials responsible for the Xinjiang internment camps.

Benjamin Herscovitch, an expert on Australia-China relations at Australian National University, sees merit to this approach. “There’s a strong argument to be made that diplomacy and foreign policy often involve compromise and that statecraft is not the right arena in which to adhere to rigid rules and pursue moral purity,” Herscovitch wrote in his newsletter Beijing to Canberra and Back this month.

Loading

Pulling the sanctions trigger could encourage Beijing to extend the detentions of Australian journalist Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun. It could provoke further tariffs on Australian goods and lead China to kick Australia back into the diplomatic dog box. Is that a risk worth taking for what would essentially be a symbolic display of condemnation? Most foreign officials, after all, are not personally affected by Australian travel bans and asset freezes. Wong thinks not, and justifiably so. The moral high-ground is no place to be if it limits your ability to nudge the world in a better direction.

“This is a hard point for people to accept because it’s easier just to say, ‘I don’t want to talk to you’,” Wong says. “But actually, I think dialogue is important.”

Wong’s three face-to-face encounters with her Chinese counterpart have not resulted in the release of Australian prisoners or the removal of sanctions from Australian wine, lobster or barley. While keeping tight-lipped, Wong appears confident her diplomatic engagement will translate into practical benefits for Australia. If it doesn’t, the government will soon face accusations it is being “played” by Beijing, granting an authoritarian regime legitimacy without receiving anything in return.

As Wong herself acknowledges, the tides have been friendly to her this year. Next year they may be choppier, requiring even more skill and energy to keep Australian foreign policy from crashing into the rocks.

Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Peter Hartcher is on leave.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.