The first person to claim the scalp of an opposition leader at a federal election has recounted her path to parliament in an emotional first speech.

Dickson MP Ali France spoke of the painful loss of her 19-year-old son Henry, who died from leukaemia in February 2024 after an 18-month battle.

France was one of the big winners of the federal election, unseating former opposition leader Peter Dutton at the May poll.

In her first speech to parliament on Tuesday, she spoke of her late son’s courage and him being the drive behind her campaign.

“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.”

France said her “epic journey” to sitting in federal parliament was not part of any grand plan, but rather down to hundreds of little steps.

The 2025 election was the third time she ran for the Queensland seat.

“A lifetime of small acts of kindness and support from so many good people,” she told the House.

In 2011, France lost her leg.

She was taking her youngest son Zac, then four years old, to an appointment at a Brisbane shopping centre when an out-of-control car came veering towards them.

Her left leg was crushed from her thigh down as she was pinned against another vehicle.

Martin Wullschleger, the trauma surgeon whose split-second decision to amputate saved France’s life, was in the gallery to hear her maiden speech.

“The first time I went out to dinner a lady stopped us and said, ‘you have such a pretty face, what a pity you are in a wheelchair’,” she said.

After six surgeries in four years, PTSD and severe pain left France at the lowest point in her life.

It was then she came across Iraqi orthopaedic surgeon Munjed Al Muderis. He told her he would do everything to get her walking again as she underwent a risky surgery to implant a metal prosthetic.

He also watched on from the gallery on Tuesday.

She described being pretty angry by the time she joined Labor in 2016.

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

“It’s like I was born the day of my accident.”

France was the first person elected at the May poll to give her maiden speech in the 48th parliament, with other first-term MPs to deliver their remarks in coming days.

-AAP