The newly minted Labor MP Ali France, who unexpectedly unseated former opposition leader Peter Dutton in the May election, has detailed her “epic journey” to Canberra in a poignant first speech.
France who battled Dutton over seven years for the seat of Dickson, north of Brisbane, was the first of Labor’s fresh faces to introduce themselves to the 48th parliament on Tuesday.
The former journalist and Paralympian became the first person in Australian history to defeat a sitting opposition leader in a federal election on her third try in May, beating the long-serving Liberal leader 56% to 44% on a two-party preferred basis.
On Tuesday evening, France told her lower house peers of the influence her father and grandparents had on instilling Labor values in her from an early age.
“Fighting for fair is in my blood,” France said.
“Whitlam’s Medibank, ending conscription, and offering free university, changed everything for my grandparents and their boys and, in turn, for me.”
France spoke of the loss of her son Henry in 2024 after an 18-month battle with leukaemia. “Behind the curtain” of the 2025 campaign, the Dickson MP said, “I was grieving and desperately wanting to hold my son”.
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“He told me many times that this election was my time,” she said.
“He was convinced I would win and said a number of times, ‘Don’t make me the excuse for you not doing important things.’
“His words, his courage, were with me every day of the campaign. Henry was instrumental in getting me to this place.”
In 2011, France was with her youngest son, Zac, then four years old, when a driver lost control of his car and pinned her against another car.
Zac was pushed out of the way, France said, but the accident resulted in her leg being amputated.
“The ground shifted, everything was hard to navigate, and I was pitied. But I survived and so did my baby Zac,” she said.
“Everyone in my life remembers the day I was supposed to die.”
France warmly thanked the surgeons who saved her life and helped her to walk again, who both watched from the gallery: Prof Martin Wullschleger and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed al Muderis, a refugee surgeon from Iraq.
Next up was another of Labor’s new MPs, Sarah Witty.
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In May, she claimed the seat of Melbourne in an election upset that left the federal Greens without their long-serving leader, Adam Bandt.
Witty spoke about her and her husband’s difficult and painful journey to become parents through the foster care system.
“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,” Witty said, after fighting back tears.
Labor member for Melbourne Sarah Witty is applauded after her first speech in parliament. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Her experiences would influence her time in parliament, she said, vowing to always ask what any child needs to “grow up to be the best person they can be”.
Housing availability and affordability was also front of mind for the new MP, with Witty saying: “Housing is not a luxury. It’s a human right.
“I bring with me the voices of renters demanding justice, of people demanding climate action, of communities demanding to be heard, not managed,” Witty said.
“We are building something bigger than one person. We are building a future where no one is forgotten and everyone belongs. That is the future I will fight for.”
France and Witty were followed by the Braddon MP Anne Urquhart, Griffith MP Renee Coffey, and Menzies MP Gabriel Ng, who spoke of the galvanising impact Pauline’s Hanson’s first, notorious speech to parliament – in 1996 – had on his own political journey.
“We have one of the most powerful platforms in the nation, and I urge all of us in this parliament to turn away from opportunistic division and embrace and tell the story of modern Australia as it is,” Ng said.
Other first-term MPs will deliver addresses in coming days.
