Billi FitzSimons: Lisa Wilkinson’s daughter arrested by Penny Wong over question about The Voice failure: “Don’t take it personally”
Lisa Wilkinson’s daughter was shut down by Foreign Minister Penny Wong after she asked what would happen if the Voice referendum failed.
Billi FitzSimons, editor of social media news source The Daily Aus, shared a short clip from a recent interview with Senator Wong, captioned “the moment she put me in my place “.
Ms FitzSimons, 25, was asking a follow-up question about the Labor government’s plans if – as polls suggest – the October 14 referendum fails.
“The question is if it doesn’t succeed: aren’t you prepared to think about…” Ms. FitzSimons asks before being interrupted.
“Well, I’m not ready to tell you about that, am I?” said Senator Wong.
Ms FitzSimons, stunned, nods and says “noted” before Senator Wong laughs and tells her “but don’t take it personally”.
“I will,” Ms. FitzSimons jokes, taking this awkward exchange in her stride.
Billi FitzSimons, 25, who was following in her mother’s footsteps by questioning politicians, was asking a follow-up question about the Labor government’s plans if – as polls suggest – the October 14 referendum fails when Foreign Secretary Penny Wong, shut up.
However, this is not the first time she has faced turbulence since landing the Daily Aus editor-in-chief job before her 25th birthday.
In June last year, the website photoshopped the German flag atop Sydney’s Harbor Bridge, rather than the Aboriginal flag, which also contains red, yellow and black.
Just a day later, Ms. FitzSimons posted a job posting seeking a fact-checker with “meticulous attention to detail.”
The young girl has been listed as one of Australia’s “nepo babies” given that she is the offspring of journalistic royalty: her father Peter FitzSimons, a former Wallaby, is also an author and journalist.
Senator Wong told him not to take it personally
Both men were all smiles after the interview
Her mother Lisa got Ms. FitzSimons her first writing job on Mamamia while she was still at college by enlisting the help of her former protégé Mia Freedman.
The star worked for Mamamia throughout her university studies before landing a job as a political editor at the Daily Aus straight after graduating.
She graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications), Government and International Relations, Digital Cultures in 2019.
But it wasn’t all down to Ms FitzSimons: her father revealed earlier this year that she worked part-time at Domino’s for four years from the age of 14 to earn money while she studied .
