When Ali France lost her 19-year-old-son Henry to leukaemia last year, it was a tragic chapter in a life which had already seen her lose a leg, and nearly another son, in an accident in a suburban shopping centre car park.
But when she became the first person in Australian history to defeat a sitting opposition leader in a federal election at her third attempt at the Brisbane seat of Dickson on Saturday night, it was another moment in which the world champion para-athlete triumphed despite unimaginable adversity.
Reflecting on her win on Sunday, France recalled Henry’s “furious” reaction after she told her boy she was going to drop her political campaign to be by his side as he fought for his life.
“He just said to me at the time, he said: ‘Don’t make me the excuse for not doing important things’,” France said.
“At times, it’s just been so incredibly hard, but I’ve just always thought of his courage and determination – and happiness – in the face of just insurmountable pain. I feel like I’ve made him proud, and I hope I have.”
France was speaking at a park in Dickson on a windy day bathed in Brisbane’s glorious autumn sunshine – and she was not alone. Basking too in the limelight was a cohort of seven other freshly elected women who the federal treasurer and fellow Maroon barracker, Jim Chalmers, had earlier dubbed the “really quite remarkable women that Queensland is sending to the national parliament”.
Among them was the young woman Chalmers had nominated to ABC’s Insiders that morning as the most surprising win of a night few expected: Emma Comer, who on Sunday appeared on track to snatch nearby Petrie from the Liberal National party.
Bonner’s Kara Cook, who was also to win a seat from the LNP, was there, as well as the two women who took seats from the Greens in the city’s inner north and south: Brisbane’s Madonna Jarrett and Griffith’s Renee Coffey.
As well, Julie-Ann Campbell, who retained Moreton at her first attempt after succeeding Labor’s Graham Perrett, and the woman who won back a second Senate seat for Labor – self-described “mum from the outer ‘burbs” – Corinne Mulholland.
For re-elected Lilley MP and sports minister Anika Wells, Labor’s empowering and inspiring of women played a “critical” role in the party securing its historic win on Saturday.
“It is such a powerful picture that you see here,” she said.
“Not just that we chose to preselect women, but these women represent their communities.
“As a woman who has had three very long years as the only Queensland woman on that flight from Brisbane to Canberra, I could not be more thrilled to have these women behind me joining me on that flight now to represent their communities in the national parliament.
“We have gone from one woman in the house, to seven women in the house – we now have enough for an entire netball team and we are here if you need.”
The figure could be even higher if Rhiannyn Douglas wins Longman from the LNP.
Wells said her party’s success in attracting strong female candidates came down to the fact they did not just “give token gestures to women” but “legislated for women” – citing cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines and support for working from home.
She added that in the first ever government composed of a majority of women, and the first cabinet to be split evenly between men and women, young women like Comer had seen themselves reflected.
“She saw herself in that, she saw the possibilities for someone like herself in that and she put herself forward in a situation that she may have never done before,” Wells said.
“Women empowering women. Women legislating for women. Women working for women. This is the result.”
