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

Ali France, the Labor MP who defeated 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.

Giant killers: Member for Dickson Ali France (left) who defeated Peter Dutton and member for Melbourne Sarah Witty who defeated Adam Bandt at the May election.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“It took seven 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 on Tuesday night in a run of first speeches from Labor women who had defeated major political figures, including key Greens figures Adam Bandt and Max Chandler-Mather, at the May election.

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 breathe 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.”

Tearing up as she spoke, France 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’.”

Sarah Witty, who became the Labor member for Melbourne after defeating Greens leader Bandt, told Parliament that she and her husband Paul chose to foster children as they were unable to have their own.

Witty said her road towards fostering children and seeking a seat in parliament began with gentle advice from her mother.

“I remember one day after a devastating loss [of yet another pregnancy], my mum gently said to me, ‘maybe you’re meant to be a mum for all children’,” she recounted in her maiden speech.

The ache at the time was too fresh and too sharp for her mother’s words to penetrate. “But her words stayed with me and slowly, as the fog of grief lifted, I opened my heart and myself to a new path,” Witty said.

“I stepped into the world of foster care, not out of ease, but out of a deep need to turn my pain into something positive.”

A secret whispered to her by one of the children she fostered, a boy she called Matt, changed everything, she said. She did not reveal what Matt had told her.

But ever since that day, Witty said every decision she is asked while representing the seat of Melbourne would be framed within the question of “what would Matt need so that he and the hundreds of children like him can grow up to be the best person they can be”.

France also spoke of the physical hardships that have shaped her outlook and her politics, including the car accident in which she lost her leg in 2011.

“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 three 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 were in the gallery to support her.

France detailed her family’s Labor history, from her grandmother Mary Lawlor, who dressed down a priest in front of his congregation for urging them not to vote for Gough Whitlam, to her father, Peter Lawlor, who ran for the Gold Coast 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.”

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