Ali France’s victory in the federal seat of Dickson is a remarkable story of resilience. After two unsuccessful attempts in 2019 and 2022 against Peter Dutton, the 51-year-old Labor candidate finally unseated him in a stunning upset, becoming the first to oust an opposition leader from their seat. Her journey is marked by personal triumphs and tragedies that have shaped her into a determined advocate.
Born Alison Lawlor in 1973, in Durban, South Africa, France moved to Australia and was educated on the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, and Canberra. She’s the daughter of former Queensland Labor MP Peter Lawlor, but her path to politics wasn’t immediate. Before entering the political arena, she built a career as a journalist, working at the Courier Mail and in Hong Kong, and later as a communications manager for the Indigenous production company Carbon Media in Brisbane. Her athletic prowess also shines through – she’s a world champion para-athlete, winning two team gold medals and a silver in paracanoeing at the 2016 Outrigger Canoe World Sprint Championships.
Life took a dramatic turn in 2011 when a car accident in a Brisbane shopping center nearly killed her. While pushing her son Zac in a stroller, an out-of-control vehicle pinned her, severing her femoral artery and leading to the amputation of her left leg above the knee. Despite being told she might never walk again, innovative surgery and a modern prosthetic enabled her recovery. This experience fueled her advocacy for disability rights and the NDIS, issues she’s championed ever since.
Tragedy struck again in 2024 when her eldest son, Henry, passed away from leukemia after 18 months of illness, a loss she endured while campaigning. A single mother to her surviving son Zac, France has lived in Arana Hills within the Dickson electorate, overcoming challenges like modifying her home for wheelchair access – a $100,000 effort criticised by Dutton in 2019 when he questioned her residency – using her disability as an excuse for not living in the electorate. Her response – searching tirelessly for an accessible home and vowing to move if elected – highlighted her commitment.
France’s campaign leaned on grassroots efforts, door-knocking, and market visits, focusing on cost-of-living relief, healthcare, and disability support. Her personal story, resilience, and connection to the community resonated, delivering a 7.8% two-candidate preferred swing to secure Dickson. Dutton, conceding defeat, praised her potential as a local MP, noting Henry would be proud.
Her win is a testament to perseverance against both political and personal odds. If I were asked to nominate Australian of the Year, at this early stage I’d put forward the name Ali France.
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Yes, I remember Dutton using her residency against her in 2019 – what he failed to acknowledge was that the house she was living in was adapted for her disability, as noted in the article.
I hear Dutton will be pumping petrol in his post politics career, he is well qualified !
Politics is apt to be mean-spirited, if there’s a vote in it. Ali France is a veteran campaigner and her final storming of the bastille on Saturday night was a joy to behold. Dutton was gracious in his I’ve-lost-it speech; graciousness is a side to him that many people fail to notice, especially as it is often obscured by bother-bootism.
why couldn’t he have been gracious before he lost? why has he been such a prat ??
A great result for Ali and Dickson, a great result for Labor
@ keitha granville
…why has he been such a prat ??
That’s a good question KG, and I think the answer lies either wholly or in part in the comments of Sky News commentators Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin as quoted in a Guardian article published earlier today (and noted in another thread).
https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/2025/may/04/andrew-bolt-sky-news-react-coalition-loss-australian-federal-election
According to Bolt the voters were wrong, and they were wrong because It was incomprehensible…that a government that “left Australians poorer, more divided, more uncertain”, could have been re-elected.
Ms. Credlin suggested her side of politics should fight more culture wars:
I’d argue we didn’t do enough of a culture war…..
In other words, Dutton should have upped the level of nastiness – that being the way to succeed.
I’ve a pretty good idea what our resident poster Kathryn would make of this.
Julian P, NOTHING surprises me about what that hateful, xenophobic racist, Andrew Bolt or the thoroughly discredited Credlin, have to say! They are NOTHING more than vacuous, unintelligent MEGAPHONES for hateful, racist right-wing extremism. Anybody with an IQ ratio in double digits would NEVER take anything those intellectual midgets have to say seriously on ANY issue!
The fact that this foresightful, intelligent woman – Ali France – defeated Dutton (in his OWN seat) is fair retribution! Indeed, the fact that Ali France trounced Dutton, the arrogant leader of one of the worst, most hideously misogynistic regimes in our nation’s history, comes under the heading of “DIVINE JUSTICE”!
The LNP is an unrepentant collection of condescending elitists, callously inhumane political psychopaths, rusted-on misogynistic predators, xenophobic racists, pathological liars and depraved, nauseating bible-thumping hypocrites (like Abbott and Morrison – the latter being a deluded, totally remorseless signed-up member of the notorious paedophile-protecting CULT of Hillsong!).
Well done, Ali, and a GREAT BIG “Thank you” to the huge majority of Australians out there who had the compassion, foresight and intelligence to thoroughly REJECT the LNP and their long-standing level of dysfunctional division, rusted-on misogyny, despicable xenophobia and condescending contempt for the poorest, most vulnerable people in our society!
It was NO SURPRISE that the inegalitarian, un-Australian hateful right-wing extremists in the LNP were so thoroughly wiped out at yesterday’s federal election – it was INEVITABLE!
In 2007 Maxine McKew removed Little Johnnie Howard from his Bennelong sinecure simultaneously ending the 13 too long years of COALition maladministration & misgovernment. McKew previously was a very experienced journalist.
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Somehow the LABOR inner sanctum chose to overlook her natural talent and failed to make her the LABOR spokesperson. Silly unfortunate decision.
Ali France deserves better treatment for saving Australia from Boofhead Duddo and the nuclear proposal, the Indue card and more LIARBRAL$ taxes.
Dickson has elected a caring politician and will enjoy the improved representation in Parliament.