Foreign Minister Penny Wong pointed her finger at Liberal deputy leader Jane Hume after she called her a ‘mean girl’ – a term with a loaded political history – during a fiery Senate clash.
The exchange occurred on Monday when Opposition Senate leader Michaelia Cash sought to suspend standing orders and force debate on a censure motion targeting Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
As Wong responded to the motion condemning Chalmers for rushing his capital gains and negative gearing tax changes through Parliament, Hume cried out from the Coalition benches.
‘You’re a mean girl,’ Hume said.
Wong then gestured directly at Hume and demanded she withdraw the remark, as murmurs rippled across the Labor benches.
Friends of Senator Kimberley Kitching revealed that she had labelled Wong, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and then-senator Kristina Keneally ‘the mean girls’ – a reference to the Lindsay Lohan comedy film – before she died of a suspected heart attack, aged 52, in 2022.
The revelations sparked controversy at the time, with the three senior Labor figures issuing a statement refuting allegations of bullying, but noting that ‘politics is a challenging profession’.
On Monday, Wong had dismissed the Coalition’s censure motion as political theatre, accusing the Opposition of grandstanding to conceal its disunity.
Penny Wong pointed her finger at Liberal deputy leader Jane Hume as the Opposition senator labelled her a ‘mean girl’. Victorian Labor senator Lisa Darmanin reacts, back row
‘This motion is deceitful. It hides their true position: they oppose tax cuts,’ she said, before mocking Hume for an appearance on Sky News earlier on Monday, where Hume had a verbal slip-up.
Hume told Sky News: ‘I don’t think The Greens have proven themselves a credible party at all. I mean, essentially they are now just an adjunct to Labor.
‘They have waved through all of Labor’s legislation, their egregious tax cuts, but not just those egregious tax cuts, but 14 other pieces of legislation this week too.’
Hume later clarified that she had made a mistake, saying she meant to say ‘tax hikes’, not ‘tax cuts’.
Wong seized on the gaffe in the Senate chamber. ‘Senator Hume called them “egregious”,’ Wong said.
‘Tax cuts for working people are “egregious”.’
Wong then dubbed Hume ‘the senator for higher taxes’ – prompting Hume’s ‘mean girl’ retort.
Jane Hume had been mocked by Wong over a slip of the tongue on Sky News earlier on Monday
Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher (right to left) were labelled the ‘mean girls’ by the late-Senator Kimberley Kitching
Speaking to the Daily Mail afterwards, Hume hit back at Wong, accusing her of fixating on a minor error to deflect from other issues.
‘On a day when Penny Wong’s former employer, the CFMEU, is back in the spotlight over serious corruption allegations, it’s no wonder she’s looking to deflect,’ Hume said.
‘Labor must be pretty desperate if an obvious slip of the tongue is the best they’ve got.
‘The fact remains this Government is imposing egregious tax hikes on Australians because they can’t manage their Budget.’
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Wong, who was first elected to the Senate in 2001. She worked for the CFMEU in the early 90s.
