‘His courage was with me’: How Ali’s late son’s words propelled her to Parliament

8 hours ago 3

Ali France, the Labor MP who defeated former opposition leader Peter Dutton, has told of the heartbreaking final days she shared with her 19-year-old son Henry before his death last year.

It was his courage that propelled her through the campaign to become 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, France said in her maiden speech to parliament on Tuesday.

Member for Dickson Ali France who defeated Peter Dutton and Member for Melbourne Sarah Witty who defeated Adam Bandt at the last election.

“It took 7 years to climb, as a single mum, with one leg, battling one of the most prolific politicians
of our time,” she said. “[Henry’s] words, his courage, were with me every day of the campaign. Henry was instrumental in getting me to this place.”

She was speaking to the House of Representatives ahead of Sarah Witty, her new Labor colleague who defeated Greens leader Adam Bandt in his electorate of Melbourne, and Renee Coffey, who beat Greens’ firebrand Max Chandler-Mather in his Brisbane electorate.

France recalled the week before her son died after an 18-month battle with leukemia, when he was able to return home and sleep in her bed again like he did when he was a child.

“I watched him breath all night, in awe of him, his courage and his ability to smile every day despite unbelievable pain and the never-ending hospital stays and treatment,” she said. “I am so grateful for those hours.”

She said her son knew the May election would be her time. “He was convinced I would win and said a number of times, ‘don’t make me the excuse for you not doing important things’.”

France also spoke of the car accident in which she lost her leg in 2011. She thanked the hospital staff and brave strangers who pulled the car off her that day.

She spoke of the discrimination she faced after losing her leg, and how she was told she would probably never work again.

“I had six surgeries in four years, suffered severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, struggled to get out of the house, didn’t drive for nearly 3 years and had severe phantom pain,” she said. She has now recovered after groundbreaking and risky surgery.

But France said the difficulties she faced were not so different to the tribulations of her voters.

“My journey to this place is not a sad story, nor is it a happy one, it is a human story,” she said. “Most of the people I represent in the electorate of Dickson share a life of ups, downs, success, hardship, loss and happiness.”

She thanked the many people she credited with helping her on her journey, many of whom appeared in the Canberra gallery in support and paid tribute to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and her former boss, Queensland state opposition leader Steven Miles.

France detailed a Labor family legacy, from her grandmother Mary Lawlor, who dressed down a priest in front of his congregation for daring to urge them to not vote for Gough Whitlam, to her father who ran for the state seat of Southport four times before winning it for Labor in 2001.

“And in 1975 Mary went all the way to the High Court of Australia to challenge unfair electoral boundaries and end the gerrymander system,” France said. “Fighting for fair is in my blood.”

”In Dad I watched a masterclass in perseverance and commitment.”

She said being a mum was her most treasured life experience, and thanked the many mothers who had been by her side for two decades and through her grief.

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