In Australia, another minister with Malaysian ties
Carr met his wife, Helena, during a holiday in Tahiti. — Reuters picMELBOURNE, March 2 — Australia’s newly-appointed Foreign Minister Bob Carr has given Malaysia another link to the administration Down Under — his wife, Helena, hails from Taiping, Perak.
Carr met his wife during a holiday in Tahiti back in 1972. A year later in Sydney, they became Mr and Mrs Carr.
Before their meeting, (the then-future) Mrs Carr had studied in Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta and later pursued a bachelor in economics at the University of Sydney.
Prior to Carr’s appointment, Malaysia had a less tenuous link to a member of the Australian Cabinet: Finance Minister Penny Wong was originally from Sabah.
Carr, a former New South Wales premier, was today named as Australia’s foreign minister by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Kevin Rudd.
Rudd, who was prime minister before Gillard, last week launched an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the Labor party.
