Leader-slayer Ali France has detailed how she beat “one of the most prolific politicians of our time” and remembered her heartbreaking final days with the son who died a little more than a year out from her election win.

The parliament’s first amputee spoke about overcoming the accident that claimed her leg, the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed and, critically, the way people’s attitudes to her changed.

In an at-times emotional address, she described her life as neither a sad nor happy story but a human one.

“Winning Dickson was highly unlikely and to some, an insurmountable mountain,” she told the House of Representatives. 

“With the very, very best Labor Party branch members, it took seven years to climb as a single mum with one leg battling one of the most prolific politicians of our time.

“Highly unlikely was also how the doctors described the death of my darling boy, Henry, from leukaemia last year, aged 19.

“Despite the very best public health care, he is not with us, and he is so desperately missed.”

France’s challenges before ending the Liberal leader’s 24-year reign in Dickson on her third attempt were well documented. She told parliament that although the 2025 campaign was “obviously my best”, she was “grieving and desperately wanting to hold my son”.

She spoke of how Henry was allowed home for a few nights before his death in February last year and asked to sleep in bed next to his mum, like when he was a little boy.

“I watched him breathe all night, in awe of him, his courage and his ability to smile despite unbelievable pain and the never-ending hospital stays and treatments. I am so, so grateful for those hours,” she said, wiping away a tear. 

“He told me many times that this election was my 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’.

“And this was so important. His words, his courage, were with me every day of the campaign. Henry was instrumental in getting me to this place.”

France is the daughter of Queensland MP Peter Lawlor but said her Labor roots went back to her grandmother Mary, whose “takedown” of the local priest in front of the whole congregation when he told them not to vote for Gough Whitlam, France said was “still remembered today”.

Her leg was amputated to save her life following a horror crash in 2011 and the surgeons critical to her survival and eventual return to walking were both watching on in the gallery.

She espoused the virtues of the NDIS and Medicare – taking care to claim them as Labor innovations – but said “assumptions and lack of opportunity” remained the real barriers to people with disabilities.

“Landing a job was incredibly difficult for me. People only saw disability,” she said.

“It was like I was born on the day of my accident. No one cared what was on my CV. 

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

France said she was grateful to the people who got her into outrigger canoeing, which built her confidence and took her to the world championships, and to disability activists within Labor who welcomed her.

She also paid tribute to her partner, Rob, surviving son, Zach, other family members and local supporters.

France was not the only Labor MP given the spotlight on the back of unseating a rival party’s leader.

Sarah Witty, who booted Greens leader Adam Bandt out of the seat of Melbourne among the minor party’s horror House of representatives showing, also spoke emotionally, detailing how she and husband Paul chose to foster children because they couldn’t have their own.

“I remember one day after a devastating (pregnancy) loss, my mum gently said to me, ‘Maybe you were meant to be a mum for all children’,” Witty said. 

“At the time her words hit a wall, I was too shattered to hear them or to let them in. 

“The ache was too fresh, too sharp, but her words stayed with me, and slowly, as the fog of grief lifted, I opened my heart and myself to a new path.”