Australian news and politics live: Senator Mehreen Faruqi stages silent protest during G-G Sam Mostyn’s speech

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The woman who unseated Peter Dutton on her third tilt at the seat of Dickson says her “epic journey” into Parliament is neither a sad nor happy story, but a very human one.

Ali France led the speeches from new MPs on Tuesday evening, the first of 20 freshman members of Labor’s caucus who will introduce themselves to Parliament this week.

In a moving speech, she laid out her deep Labor roots and the struggles she has faced, including losing a leg in 2011 and her son Henry dying of leukaemia in early 2024.

Read the full wrap below.

The new Dickson MP says her community wanted help with the cost of living, access to healthcare and housing.

“In voting for me they rejected the politics of fear and division,” France said.

France says she was ‘pretty angry’ by the time she joined the Labor party in 2016.

“Labor delivered the NDIS, but people with a disability still struggle to be seen, to get around the community and get jobs,” she said.

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

France says the experience of losing her leg has connected her to the disability community.

Following her amputation she was wheelchair bound, but then underwent osseointegration surgery which enabled her to walk again.

“Disability is not the barrier, but our environment, assumptions and lack of opportunity are the barriers,” she said.

France lost her leg in 2011, and has thanked her trauma surgeon, Professor Martin Wullschleger, who is in the gallery.

She says the decision to amputate her leg was life-saving.

“Martin’s split-second decision to amputate my leg with a makeshift tourniquet saved me and ensured my kids had their mum,” she said.

The Labor MP says her time studying and practicing journalism gave her a broad understanding of different walks of life.

She worked for The Courier-Mail, and went on to cover the Right of Abode cases in Hong Kong.

“The work was great but the people, all walks of life and cultures, gave me a huge appreciation and understanding of lives that looked different to my own,” she said.

The Dickson MP shared her personal connection to Medicare, and said she will not stop fighting for it.

“Medicare is Labor’s heart, but it is also mine,” she said.

“Medicare saved my life and gave my Henry the very best chance of surviving Leukemia.”

The new Labor MP has begun her speech by saying she has been instilled with Labor values since childhood.

“Labor values of economic and social justice are not just something my family has voted for, they have underpinned our weekends, our work and our friendships for generations,” she said.

“Those values drive everything I do and fight for in Dickson.”

Ali France, the Labor MP who ousted Peter Dutton at the Federal election is set to address Parliament at 5.30pm AEST.

France is the new member for Dickson, a seat that Dutton held since 2001.

She ended Mr Dutton’s 24 year run in the seat, one of the big election upsets as Labor recorded a landslide victory.