FINANCE Minister Penny Wong says becoming a parent with partner Sophie Allouache is nothing more than a couple who love each other starting a family.

"You have a child because you want a family and you want to have the opportunity of raising a child together. You don't have a child to make a political statement, do you?" she told The Advertiser.

The uber-private Finance Minister, 42, has announced the couple are expecting what she admits could be a Christmas baby with Ms Allouache, 35, expecting in late December following successful IVF treatment.

The donor father is "known to the couple" and will be made known to the child but he will not be named publicly by agreement.

It is understood Ms Wong and Ms Allouache travelled interstate for fertility treatment due to difficulties of accessing IVF for same sex couples in SA.

In her Canberra office yesterday, a beaming, if slightly apprehensive Senator Wong admitted to being overjoyed, but a little nervous too.

Ms Wong laughs as she admits that Prime Minister Julia Gillard was delighted with the news and insistent that her minister take adequate parenting time off after the birth.

But even before then, things could get tricky. News of her impending parenthood will inevitably be seen in the context of a burgeoning gay marriage debate set to dominate the ALP's National Conference in December.

She said she intended to put her arguments in favour of gay marriage at the conference - birth permitting - but did not believe the broader policy issue and her new personal circumstances should be linked.

"I can understand for some this may give rise to a range of political and policy comment . . . but I don't want to engage in the policy debate about these issues in the context of something that's so deeply personal and so lovely," she said.

But as a professional politician used to managing the public and private spheres of her life, albeit uncomfortably, she also knows this will be hard.

Opponents of same sex marriage will criticise the decision to raise a child without a male role model present.

Veteran hardline Christian campaigner Fred Nile was critical of Ms Wong promoting a lesbian lifestyle and "trying to make it natural where it's unnatural".

Senator Wong rejected that, simply saying "children need to be loved, nurtured and respected, and our child will be".

Originally published as Wong's baby no political statement