Penny Wong in foreign minister mode is a cool sort of customer; erudite, cerebral, inclined to swot, not generally the kind of politician found at the centre of a “merde” storm. And yet people have been losing their minds about what Australia’s foreign minister is or is not doing, or saying, since she had the temerity to urge restraint at the beginning of the terrible war in the Middle East.
When Hamas militants stormed the border early in October, unleashing the living hell that has followed, Wong condemned the attack and said Israel had a right to defend itself. She counselled against escalation and noted Australia urged “the exercise of restraint and protection of civilian lives”.
