Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong meeting with FCA Members in Sydney
photo credit: Fergus Maguire
FCA Members met with the Australian Foreign Minister, hon Penny Wong, at the DFAT Sydney on 18 February 2026.
FCA members, in attendance:
Peter Hadfield, President FCA (CBC, Canada), Barbara Barkhausen, Vice-President FCA (NZZ, Germany), Gonzalo Aguirregomezcorta, Board member FCA, (El Mundo, Spain), Raj Suri (freelance photographer, Australia, TVWS News India), Dr. Marie Geissler, Board Member FCA (author, Australia), Nobuko Matsuda (NHK, Japan), Isabelle Anne Cecile Dellerba (Le Monde, France), Rurika Imahashi (Nikkei, Japan), Hei Yu Mak (Nikkei, Japan), , Roger Maynard (Channel News Asia, Singapore), Edurne Morillo Garcia (EFE news agency, Spain, Latin America), Hiroyuki Takahashi (Jiji Press, Japan), Rachel Qu (Epoch Times, Chinese community), Chang Nguyen (Vietnam News Agency) , Hiroki Iijima (TBS, Japan), George Yang (Phoenix Satellite TV, Asia), Rachael Bayliss-Chan (Kyodo News Japan, Sydney Bureau), Dennis Nishihara Tetsuya ( NNA Japan, Australia MD).
2008 – “Engaging the Press: FCA Luncheon with Young Minister a Success“
On behalf of Foreign Correspondents Association, as a good will gesture, a photo essay frame of 2008 FCA luncheon, was presented to the minister by Barbara Barkhausen, FCA vice president on 18 February meeting.
The hon minister, Penny Wong, was appreciative of the gesture and keenly viewed the imagery from 17 years ago.
The photo collage formed the exhibit of FCA 40th Anniversary Exhibitions in 2025 in UTS and National Press Club. Photo credit: Don Fuch, Design & Curation: Raj Suri
FCA Luncheon, 28 November 2008:
The Hon. Penny Wong (Penelope Ying-Yen Wong)
A glamorous harbourside luncheon venue filled with journalists. Penny Wong was the FCA’s Guest Speaker. Seemingly informal, the photographs nonetheless perceptively capture a youthful Minister, brimming with quiet confidence and reserve. These qualities would increasingly define her public image later when in 2022 she became Labor’s Foreign Minister. This demeanour was in part due to her position as acting Minister for Climate Change. It was a moment that represented a significant consolidation of her power, being the first person ever to hold this position in an Australian Cabinet. In December, the year before, she had accompanied then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Bali for international climate change talks. She led final negotiations as Chair of the United Nations Working Group in the closing days of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, shortly after her appointment as Minister. A forceful advocate for multiculturalism, Wong became the first Asian-Australian in an Australian Cabinet, and the first openly LGBTI Australian federal parliamentarian.
