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Australia’s foreign minister has married her longtime partner in a quiet ceremony in her home state of South Australia.
Penny Wong, 55, exchanged vows with Sophie Allouache, who she has been in a relationship with since 2006, at Bird in Hand Winery in the Adelaide Hills on Saturday.
The couple share two young daughters, Alexandra, 11, and Hannah, eight.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and newly engaged girlfriend Jodie Haydon were also in attendance after flying in on his RAAF plane on Friday, as were Health Minister Mark Butler and former SA Premier Jay Whetherill.
Senator Wong has long been a supporter of same-sex marriage and broke down in tears when Australians voted to legalize the union in 2017.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has married Sophie Allouache in Adelaide and held a reception at Bird in Hand Winery with Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon, Mark Butler and Jay Whetherill in attendance (pictured earlier together)
The passage of same-sex marriage laws was a turbulent period for Senator Wong.
She condemned the toxic debate surrounding the 2017 referendum on whether Australia should allow same-sex unions – held under Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull – as an ‘expensive stunt’.
But when Australians voted overwhelmingly to approve such marriages, she wept with joy.
“I hope everyone in this Parliament has heard the resounding voice of the Australian people today, a mandate for change, a mandate for equality,” she said.
‘Cause it’s time.
‘Thank you for standing up for justice, thank you for standing up for equality. Thank you for standing up for our families.’
Senator Wong was a strong campaigner for same-sex marriage and broke down in tears when it was legalized in 2017
Seven years earlier, Senator Wong had controversially stuck to what was Labor’s policy maintaining that marriage was an institution between a man and a woman.
“On the issue of marriage, I think the reality is that there is a cultural, religious, historical view of it that we have to respect,” she said.
Senator Wong came out publicly as gay in 2002, shortly after she was elected to the Senate, although her sexuality was not a secret to friends and family.
Allouache, who works as a public servant in Adelaide and is seven years younger than Senator Wong, carried and gave birth the couple’s daughters Alexandra and Hannah after undergoing IVF.