Two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine days. That’s how long Penny Wong has served in cabinet, a record that on Wednesday saw her overtake Amanda Vanstone as the longest-serving female cabinet minister in Australian history.

Wong’s staying power at the highest levels of Australian politics could not have been predicted when she entered the Senate in 2002, a time when John Howard-style conservatism was in ascendance. Being a Malaysian-born, openly gay woman hardly seemed like the ticket to political longevity or popularity – yet she has achieved both.

Penny Wong is Australia’s longest-serving female cabinet minister.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Australians last year ranked Wong the nation’s most impressive leader, giving her a net likeability of plus 14 per cent (Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a rating of minus three, according to the Resolve Political Monitor, and his predecessor Scott Morrison minus 35).

Diplomats around the world inevitably praise Wong as a shrewd and impressive operator while she commands an almost cult-like following within the Labor Party. As well as foreign minister, she is Labor’s Senate leader and a close confidante and friend of Albanese. In the Rudd-Gillard years she served in cabinet as climate change and finance minister.

Vanstone – who spent seven-and-a-half years in cabinet in the Howard era, including as immigration minister – says of Wong’s record: “It’s a testament to endurance, determination, being able to persevere and keep a calm head.”

While not a fan of identity politics, Vanstone says it is undoubtedly harder for women to gain, and maintain, senior political roles. Male cabinet colleagues, she recalls, would often blithely neglect to invite her to group dinners – casual encounters where crucial political insights could be gleaned amid discussion of that weekend’s footy results.

“I think it’s an embarrassment I held the record for so long,” Vanstone says. “It shows not enough women are coming up through the ranks.”

Although both studied arts/law at the University of Adelaide and share a love of laksa, Vanstone says she doesn’t know Wong especially well.