Labor MP Ali France’s ‘human story’ of love and hardship leads to unseating Peter Dutton

The woman who unseated Peter Dutton on her third tilt at the seat of Dickson says her “epic journey” into Parliament is neither a sad nor happy story, but a very human one.

Ali France led the speeches from new MPs on Tuesday evening, the first of 20 freshman members of Labor’s caucus who will introduce themselves to Parliament this week.

In a moving speech, she laid out her deep Labor roots and the struggles she has faced, including losing a leg in 2011 and her son Henry dying of leukaemia in early 2024.

Ms France said her journey to represent the people of Dickson wasn’t the result of any grand plan or lifelong dream, but rather hundreds of little steps.

“My journey to this place is not a sad story, nor is it a happy one, it is a human story,” she said.

“It will shape me as a representative and has narrowed my focus — but it is not especially unique. Most of the people I represent in the electorate of Dickson share a life of ups, downs, success, hardship, loss and happiness.”

She spoke of how her beliefs were formed “stuffing envelopes, letter boxing and (attending) council meetings” with her grandparents and then her father.

The new MP paid tribute to them in a speech that covered her grandmother Mary Lawlor’s epic takedown of a local priest who urged people not to vote for Gough Whitlam and her father Peter Lawlor’s “masterclass in perseverance and commitment” to pursue and win the previously Liberal-held seat Southport - which he achieved on his fourth attempt - in the Queensland parliament. He went on to serve for 12 years, including as a minister.

“Fighting for fair is in my blood,” Ms France said.

“Labor values of economic and social justice are not just something my family has voted for; they have underpinned our weekends, our work and our friendships for generations.

“Those values drive everything I do and fight for in Dickson.”

Ms France began her career as a journalist, left the workforce once the cost of keeping two young children in childcare grew too much, eventually returned and then had her life turned upside down when she was run over by a car in 2011 and had her leg amputated.

“Everyone in my life remembers the day I was supposed to die,” she said.

The doctors who saved her life and did the pioneering surgery to help her walk again were watching on as Ms France spoke of her struggles to adapt to life as a disabled person.

“I left the hospital positive and determined to go to the leg shop, buy a leg, put it on and walk off into the sunset,” she said.

“Of course, it didn’t work like that.”

The hardest thing was trying to find a job when no one seemed able to see past her missing limb.

“It’s like I was born the day of my accident – no one cared what was on my CV,” Ms France said.

“As someone who draws a lot of my self-worth from work, this was devastating.”

By the time she joined the Labor Party in 2016, she was “pretty angry” and in her “just bloody do it era”.

She paid tribute to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former Queensland premier Steven Miles as her “greatest political believers”, and to her sons Zac and Henry, along with her campaign team and the Dickson community.

“I am one of the first women with a disability to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first person to unseat an Opposition Leader,” she said.

“Kindness, a helping hand, opportunity and open doors have got me here. And that’s what I will be giving to the people of Dickson.”