Where is OUR Penny Wong?

Its funny how researching a blog post can cause you to stumble upon information that derails your train of though and sends your mind and fingers careening down an entirely different path. It doesn’t happen to me that often, but when it does I try to just go where the research leads me.

I was doing some preliminary research about water shortages in the areas where food riots have broken out recently. In the US news media, the severe droughts in Africa and Australia have gone on for so long that they rarely make the news except to add color and depth to other stories about food shortages, grain prices, or genocide in the case of Darfur.

In the course of my reading last night I kept coming across one name, over and over. That the person with that name ended up as today’s post. She is the Australian Labor Party’s Senator for South Australia, Penny Wong.

She has been a member of the Australian Senate since 2002 and Ms. Wong is the first openly gay member, and the first Asian-born member, of an Australian cabinet or ministry.

Ms. Wong was born in Sabah, Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese Hakka father and an Australian mother. She moved to Australia when she was eight and settled in the Adelaide Hills. She won a scholarship to Scotch College and obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Law Degree (with Honors) from the University of Adelaide. She began working for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) while she was still studying and continued working with the union after she was admitted to the Bar. In 1995-1996 she worked as a ministerial advisor to the Carr government in New South Wales, concentrating on forest policy. She later returned to Adelaide to practice law.

Wong ran for the Senate in 2001, and was selected for the top spot on the ALP’s South Australian ticket. She joined the Senate in 2002. Since December of 2007 she’s been Australia’s current and first Minister for Climate Change and Water – a new cabinet position created in 2007.

Its her work in the role of Minister for Climate Change and Water that kept Senator Wong’s quotes and proposals popping up in my research. But it was another statement of hers that caught my attention. She is one of only two openly gay people in Australia’s parliament but she has not allowed her sexuality to act as a distraction while she works for her professional and political goals.

In a written statement to the Sydney Star Observer she said:

“It seems that public figures are becoming more prepared to be open about their sexuality. This demonstrates an increased confidence in the community that people can be openly lesbian or gay and still be successful in their chosen field – a credit to years of advocacy by very brave people. That advocacy has enabled many lesbian and gay public figures to focus on their chosen fields, rather than automatically becoming spokespeople on sexuality issues. I believe this reflects maturity, diversity and strength among the lesbian and gay community.”

Last December, Penny Wong played a central negotiating role for Australia during the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Bali where she co-chaired the Ad-hoc Working Group meeting. Out of that meeting a deal was struck, despite protests from the United States, to cut emissions between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020. Although, as usual, the USA refused to agree to binding targets, this agreement effectively put the United States government on notice.

Until December 2007, Australia stood with the US in refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. That changed when the new Rudd government in Australia followed through on a campaign process to join in the climate framework.

Since her appointment as Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong has spent the first quarter of 2008 working to create a Federal plan to draw the various Australian states together in a unified plan to address water shortages and long term sustainability for both rural farm communities and more urban and suburban communities.

As part of that plan, Wong announced yesterday that next month’s Federal Budget will contain plans to spend just under $13 billion on water projects over the next 10 years. In a major speech she delivered yesterday, titled “Water for the Future“, she addressed the issue of trying to solve Australian water problems this late in the game.

Water reform is not just some abstract policy exercise – and Commonwealth funds will depend on it being realized. Our reform agenda directly impacts on our everyday lives.

• By removing barriers to trade in water, we will allow markets to operate much more effectively in allocating water between competing uses, improving water use efficiency, and delivering water to its highest value uses. These benefits flow right through to the supermarket shelf.
• By ensuring that economic settings work to promote affordable and timely investment in secure water supplies, and ensure that alternative water supplies and water-efficient technologies can compete on a level playing field. This will also provide customers with an appropriate financial reward for their water conservation efforts.
• By improving water security in remote communities, including remote indigenous communities, we are confirming the basic right to drinking water.
• And by making sure our water planners have best available information on available water resources and the likely impacts of climate change, we avoid problems of poor planning, over-allocation and under-investment, and we minimise the likelihood of costly water shortages into the future.

Unfortunately, years of inaction mean this reform has become urgent. Further delay will only make reform more difficult and more costly. As is the case in many areas of reform, the longer we delay, the bigger and more costly the problems become.

You can read this and her other speeches and editorials at Penny Wong – Media releases and Speeches.

Much of the work Wong and the Australian government has done can be used to address problems that are just now getting attention here in the United States. Water rights have long been an issue in the American west and if the recent drought in the South East is any indication, they may be an issue all over the nation before long.

With the collapse of the housing market, many towns and cities will suffer huge shortfalls in funding from property taxes. The lack of money will delay or entirely eliminate water projects all over the country. This long term problem will only be addressed when the US Federal Government recognizes that problems of this nature go beyond state boundaries and that it must step in to provide guidance and structure to ensure that water is available in the future.

We need someone like Penny Wong to head a project like that for the United States. We haven’t had a President or high level Federal official ask Americans to think about their lifestyles and think about where they can conserve and where they can eliminate waste entirely since Jimmy Carter left office. Hopefully our next President won’t continue the delusional idea that Americans can shop their way out of crisis.