Tanya Plibersek was elected to federal parliament aged just twenty-eight, and has lived almost half her life in the public eye. She is the longest-serving woman in Australia’s House of Representatives. But how much do we know about what drives her, what she values, and what we can expect from her next?

Margaret Simons draws on exclusive interviews with Plibersek, her political contemporaries, family and close friends to trace the personal and political strands of this modern Australian story. She considers Plibersek’s role in the Rudd and Gillard governments, Labor’s soul-searching years in opposition and Plibersek’s position in the Albanese cabinet. She also sheds light on the personal currents that have carried Plibersek, through moments of joy and tragedy, to become the person she is today.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Margaret Simons about the early life of the Plibersek family, the important issues Tanya has championed throughout her political life, the background to her well-honed skills as a media communicator and whether Tanya Plibersek might have the qualities necessary to rise to the very top.