Dutton lost his seat to Labor’s Ali France. Here’s what we know about her

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Labor candidate Ali France has been successful in her third tilt at the Brisbane seat of Dickson, becoming the first person to unseat an opposition leader with her shock defeat of Peter Dutton.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has regularly praised France as an “extraordinary Australian” who had overcome significant adversity: France’s leg was amputated after she saved her youngest son in a car crash, before she lost her eldest son to leukaemia more than a decade later.

Ali France with her supporters in Kallangur on Saturday night.Credit: Joe Armao

France was pushing a stroller with her son, Zac, and waiting for a lift at a Brisbane shopping plaza in 2011 when an out-of-control car driven by an elderly man screamed in her direction. She tried to push the stroller out of the way, but it went under the car, which then slammed into France and pinned her against the front of another vehicle.

Her four-year-old survived mostly unscathed, but the force of the car severed France’s femoral artery, and she nearly bled to death before the ambulance arrived. Surgeons were forced to amputate her left leg above the knee.

“I spent many years in hospital and my pathway to politics really began in that hospital,” she told this masthead before the 2019 election, when she made her first attempt at Dickson.

“Waiting for surgeries and appointments, I talked to many, many people about how they were struggling with health expenses and the pressures of the system. The whole experience drove a passion to see changes in the way our healthcare system is funded. I am passionate about Medicare – it literally saved my life.”

Five years later, in 2024, France again reflected on Australia’s healthcare system after another tragedy. Her eldest son, Henry, died from leukaemia after spending 18 months in and out of hospital.

“Henry did everything he was supposed to do to be a survivor, to stay with us. Our health professionals did everything they could, but all the love [and] medicine in the world wasn’t enough,” France tweeted at the time.

“He watched his friends go to schoolies, to university and jobs from his hospital bed, cheering them on. He just accepted what was in front of him – he was the very definition of courageous ... I would do anything for more time with my Henry.”

France had also lost Henry’s father and her ex-husband, Clive, to cancer the year before.

Ali France, the new Labor MP for the seat of Dickson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Dickson is one of Queensland’s most marginal electorates, most recently held by the Liberal National Party on a 1.7 per cent margin, but Dutton has successfully defended it at every election since 2001. France challenged him for the seat in 2019 and 2022, reducing his margin in each contest.

France acknowledged Dutton had represented the community for 24 years.

“It’s a hard gig,” she said on Saturday night. “Back in 2018, I was told that Dickson was not winnable, and it wouldn’t be winnable until Peter Dutton retired … I took all of that in, and went, ‘yeah, nup’.”

The Labor candidate came under scrutiny last month when social media posts resurfaced from 2017, showing France had retweeted a meme of Dutton as a Nazi and making critical comments about Israel.

Albanese flashes his Medicare card while campaigning with France in Dickson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese defended her despite the criticism, describing France as “an outstanding human being”. He was bullish about Labor’s chances in Dickson.

“She’s someone who has overcome extraordinary adversity during this time, while she’s been a candidate, the loss of her son, and has overcome tragedy,” he said in the fourth week of the campaign.

“It would be a really good idea if people recognise that Ali France is someone who has shown courage, who has overcome adversity, is putting herself forward not for the first time, not for the second time, but for the third time to look after the local community that she loves.

“She won’t leave in a time of crisis ... Ali France was there, packing those sandbags to look after her local community ... I wish her well, and everyone I know who’s had contact with Ali France over a long period of time has been supportive of her.”

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