Jacinda Ardern hopes 'huggers, criers and worriers' can be emboldened as leaders
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the youngest elected leaders in history, one of only two premiers to give birth while in office and the only one to take her infant into a session of the United Nations.
She's written a memoir about her life and time in office. It is full of surprises, including the story of how a shy sensitive person, full of self-doubt could succeed in such a tough job - modern professional politics.
Dame Jacinda Ardern spoke to 7.30's Sarah Ferguson.
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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Dickson MP Ali France honours late 19yo son Henry, credits him for her election win against Peter Dutton
The disabled, single mum who ended Peter Dutton's 24-year run in politics has shared the private battle behind her uphill campaign to unseat the former opposition leader at her third attempt. Giving her inaugural speech in parliament, Ali France said that while the 2025 federal campaign was 'obviously my best,' she remained heartbroken over the death of her 19-year-old son Henry, who lost his battle to leukaemia in February 2024. 'The 2025 campaign was obviously my best, and that is quite a bizarre thing because behind the curtain I was grieving and desperately wanting to hold my son Henry,' she told parliament. The 52-year-old became a Labor legend after she defeated Mr Dutton in the outer Brisbane seat of Dickson, a seat he had held since 2001. While the electorate was one of the country's most marginal at 1.7 per cent, Ms France achieved a 7.7 per cent swing. Ms France credited Henry, who she said was 'in another place, hopefully looking on with a big, wide smile,' as being 'instrumental' to her unexpected election win. She also shared a private moment in the weeks before his death, when Henry was able to return home from hospital 'for a couple of nights'. 'He asked to sleep in my bed, next to his mum, like he did for years when he was little,' he said. 'I watched him breathe all night, in awe of him, his courage and his ability to smile every day despite unbelievable pain and the never-ending hospital stays and treatment. 'I am so grateful for those hours.' She said her son told her she would win the seat of Dickson. '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,' she said. 'His words, his courage, were with me every day of the campaign. Henry was instrumental in getting me to this place.' Ms France also spoke about the 2011 car accident which resulted in the amputation of her leg. The incident occurred in the after a car crashed into her, and pinned her against another vehicle. At the time, Ms France was taking her youngest son Zac to a doctor's appointment, however she managed to push the child out of the car's path. She referred to the incident as the 'day I was supposed to die,' and thanked her trauma surgeon Martin Wullschleger, the bystanders and staff at the Royal Brisbane Hospital for saving her life. 'Martin's split-second decision to amputate my leg with a makeshift tourniquet saved me and ensured my kids had their mum,' she said. 'We kept in touch, Martin is in the gallery.' Ms France said that while she was told she was 'unlikely to ever work again,' she owed her recovery to a 'refugee (orthopaedic) surgeon from Iraq', Professor Munjed Al Muderis, who successfully completed a 'groundbreaking and risky' osseointegration surgery, which at the time had only been completed 25 times. 'I've now been walking for 11 years – with a little help from my wheelchair,' she said. 'Munjed is in the gallery. And I am so grateful you stepped outside the boundaries of what was thought to be medically possible at the time. 'I literally would not be standing here today without you.' The Brisbane MP also paid a special tribute to Anthony Albanese and her former boss and Queensland premier Steven Miles, and referred to them as her 'greatest political believers'. Notably the Prime Minister visited the seat of Dickson twice during the federal campaign, and began his election run in what was originally regarded as an unwinnable seat. 'When you're running for a third time, there will always be those who question if you're the right candidate,' she said. 'The Prime Minister and Steven have always been in my corner. 'Their support has meant I've continued to climb the mountain and succeed, when many others said I should step away.'
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Pauline Hanson's surprise nomination and Bob Katter's unusual oath
Pauline Hanson is no stranger to shocking the Senate. This time, however, there were no outfit reveals like her widely condemned burqa offering of 2017, but rather a surprise nomination for a man who, politically at least, sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. "I would like to nominate David Pocock," the One Nation leader said, putting forward the independent to be president of the Senate. Perhaps what was more shocking was what followed — a man turning down the chance at a pay rise and political promotion. "I am very flattered that you would put me forward," a surprised Pocock told the chamber. Wearing a jacket and no tie, Pocock noted that as much as he disagreed with the bulk of the conventions in the Senate, this was an instance in which he would uphold it, and focus his time representing the people of the ACT. "I would politely decline the nomination but thank you," he said before returning to his seat on the crossbench. The scale of Labor's election victory brought with it gains in the Senate that will see the ALP become the biggest party. It also stripped Pocock of the key vote he previously held in the last parliament. Having quietly returned to his seat, across the parliament, the father of the House was finding his voice, even if it wasn't necessarily being sought. Bob Katter stood alongside his fellow crossbenchers as House of Representatives clerk Claressa Surtees asked the MPs to swear their allegiance to King Charles, his heirs and successors. "No, I swear allegiance to the Australian people," Katter said, before repeating it a second time. It was far from the first time a politician had gone off script. In the last parliament, senator Lidia Thorpe initially described the Queen as a coloniser. At the time she was forced to recite the oath as written. Years later she would claim that she had sworn her allegiance to the Queen's "hairs", not "heirs". This time, no hairs were split over Katter's comments and the pomp and circumstance carried on. Still licking its wounds from its electoral drubbing, the Coalition broke with convention and opted against nominating a candidate for speaker, instead backing in Labor's Milton Dick to return the role he held in the last parliament. Steps were racked up as MPs marched backwards and forwards between the chambers for the ceremonial proceedings. As Labor MPs crammed into the Senate, it hammered home the scale of its May election. Squished into the limited seating of the 76-member Upper House, Labor's 123 politicians were crammed in like sardines. The opposition, meanwhile, with its 70 politicians, had enough room to swing a cat. It wasn't just the numbers that told the story but also what those in the chamber were wearing. A seat of men in blue suits dominated the opposition's benches, where fewer than one in three were women. Opposite them sat a female-dominated Labor caucus, where the number of women is so strong that it is just one person shy of the full Coalition caucus. In the House of Representatives it's even starker, with Labor women making up greater numbers than the opposition as a whole. The return of the parliament brings with it a chance for Labor to take not just a victory lap but the chance to rub it in the face of its opponents. You need only look to who Labor tapped to deliver the first of the parliament's first speeches to see an example of just that. First up will be Ali France, followed then by Sarah Whitty, two women whose victories came at the expense of Liberal leader Peter Dutton and Greens leader Adam Bandt. Defeating Dutton is why so many people know France's name. But her story is so much more than the man she defeated at an election. A former journalist, para-athlete and disability advocate, France had a leg amputated above her knee after she was pinned by a car in a shopping centre car park. Her eldest son, Henry, died from leukaemia in early 2024, an experience that almost prompted her to abandon her years' long quest to become a federal MP. In an arena that has long been dominated by men, France's story shows how the parliament is changing. Tomorrow too will bring with it those signs of change, when Sussan Ley squares off against the prime minister for her first question time as opposition leader. The first woman to hold that role, Ley has vowed she'll be doing business differently to the men who came before her.
ABC News
13 hours ago
- ABC News
Liberals could slip out early from first sitting day to attend party fundraiser
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and her shadow cabinet may have to dip out of the first sitting day of parliament early to attend a party fundraiser sponsored by global beer giant Lion. The fundraiser, billed as an "evening briefing with the leader and shadow cabinet", is due to begin at 7pm tonight, an hour before the House of Representatives is scheduled to rise. The party leaders rallied their teams yesterday as politicians descended again on Canberra — the prime minister urging his colleagues not to take Labor's overwhelming victory "for granted", and the opposition leader telling her party room they had returned to take the fight up to the government on behalf of struggling Australians. Ms Ley will attend this evening's ticketed event being held away from Parliament House as "special guest speaker". The two-hour event organised through the Liberal Party's Australian Business Network advertises that Ms Ley will be joined by her shadow cabinet, though promotion material does not specify when the address will begin. But the sitting program shows first speeches from new MPs will still be underway as the event starts, followed by a half-hour adjournment debate — closing updates to parliament that cap the sitting day and are typically little-attended by members of the house. While MPs may miss part of sitting to attend the event, they will be in compliance with standing orders and do not risk missing a vote, since voting is suspended after 6pm. MPs are not required to be in the chamber at all times while it is sitting, and it is common for MPs to attend events within parliament during sitting weeks. Federal MPs are returning to parliament for the first time since Labor's overwhelming election victory on May 3, in which the party added 24 new MPs to its ranks. After ceremonial opening events, a triumphant Labor will begin the resumption of parliament with the first sitting speeches of Ali France and Sarah Witty, the new MPs who toppled former Liberal leader Peter Dutton and former Greens leader Adam Bandt, respectively. High on the speaking list are Anne Urquhart, who moved from the senate in Tasmania to contest the seat of Braddon, Gabriel Ng, who defeated Liberal MP Keith Wolahan in Menzies and Renee Coffey, who took the Queensland seat of Griffith from Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather. Addressing a much more crowded caucus room yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told his parliamentary team not to become complacent in victory. "A lot more people try to get here than do get here. And more often than not, Labor has been at the other end of the corridor," Mr Albanese said. "Which is why we should never, ever, ever take it for granted." The party will introduce its first bill to slash HECS debts by 20 per cent on Wednesday, as well as legislation to cut funding from childcare providers who fail quality standards, and a bill to enshrine protections for penalty rates into law. Ms Ley told her party room yesterday the Coalition would support constructive policies where it can, including the government's coming childcare legislation, but it would fight where policies were not in the national interest. "Our policies are up for review, but our values are not," Ms Ley said. "[Australians] want a parliament that understands their lives, what their lives are like, and a government gets out the way, and they also want people in Canberra who get that they want to have a crack and get ahead, because it's aspiration that connects every thread of Australian society, and it's for aspirational Australians that we will fight for every day in this place."
