Latest news with #Liberal-held
7NEWS
22-07-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
Labor MP Ali France's ‘human story' of love and hardship leads to unseating Peter Dutton
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. Ms France said her journey to represent the people of Dickson wasn't the result of any grand plan or lifelong dream, but rather hundreds of little steps. 'My journey to this place is not a sad story, nor is it a happy one, it is a human story,' she said. 'It will shape me as a representative and has narrowed my focus — but it is not especially unique. Most of the people I represent in the electorate of Dickson share a life of ups, downs, success, hardship, loss and happiness.' She spoke of how her beliefs were formed 'stuffing envelopes, letter boxing and (attending) council meetings' with her grandparents and then her father. The new MP paid tribute to them in a speech that covered her grandmother Mary Lawlor's epic takedown of a local priest who urged people not to vote for Gough Whitlam and her father Peter Lawlor's 'masterclass in perseverance and commitment' to pursue and win the previously Liberal-held seat Southport - which he achieved on his fourth attempt - in the Queensland parliament. He went on to serve for 12 years, including as a minister. 'Fighting for fair is in my blood,' Ms France said. '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. 'Those values drive everything I do and fight for in Dickson.' Ms France began her career as a journalist, left the workforce once the cost of keeping two young children in childcare grew too much, eventually returned and then had her life turned upside down when she was run over by a car in 2011 and had her leg amputated. 'Everyone in my life remembers the day I was supposed to die,' she said. The doctors who saved her life and did the pioneering surgery to help her walk again were watching on as Ms France spoke of her struggles to adapt to life as a disabled person. 'I left the hospital positive and determined to go to the leg shop, buy a leg, put it on and walk off into the sunset,' she said. 'Of course, it didn't work like that.' The hardest thing was trying to find a job when no one seemed able to see past her missing limb. 'It's like I was born the day of my accident – no one cared what was on my CV,' Ms France said. 'As someone who draws a lot of my self-worth from work, this was devastating.' By the time she joined the Labor Party in 2016, she was 'pretty angry' and in her 'just bloody do it era'. She paid tribute to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former Queensland premier Steven Miles as her 'greatest political believers', and to her sons Zac and Henry, along with her campaign team and the Dickson community. 'I am one of the first women with a disability to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first person to unseat an Opposition Leader,' she said. 'Kindness, a helping hand, opportunity and open doors have got me here. And that's what I will be giving to the people of Dickson.'
West Australian
22-07-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Labor MP Ali France's ‘human story' of love and hardship leads to unseating Peter Dutton
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. Ms France said her journey to represent the people of Dickson wasn't the result of any grand plan or lifelong dream, but rather hundreds of little steps. 'My journey to this place is not a sad story, nor is it a happy one, it is a human story,' she said. 'It will shape me as a representative and has narrowed my focus — but it is not especially unique. Most of the people I represent in the electorate of Dickson share a life of ups, downs, success, hardship, loss and happiness.' She spoke of how her beliefs were formed 'stuffing envelopes, letter boxing and (attending) council meetings' with her grandparents and then her father. The new MP paid tribute to them in a speech that covered her grandmother Mary Lawlor's epic takedown of a local priest who urged people not to vote for Gough Whitlam and her father Peter Lawlor's 'masterclass in perseverance and commitment' to pursue and win the previously Liberal-held seat Southport - which he achieved on his fourth attempt - in the Queensland parliament. He went on to serve for 12 years, including as a minister. 'Fighting for fair is in my blood,' Ms France said. '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. 'Those values drive everything I do and fight for in Dickson.' Ms France began her career as a journalist, left the workforce once the cost of keeping two young children in childcare grew too much, eventually returned and then had her life turned upside down when she was run over by a car in 2011 and had her leg amputated. 'Everyone in my life remembers the day I was supposed to die,' she said. The doctors who saved her life and did the pioneering surgery to help her walk again were watching on as Ms France spoke of her struggles to adapt to life as a disabled person. 'I left the hospital positive and determined to go to the leg shop, buy a leg, put it on and walk off into the sunset,' she said. 'Of course, it didn't work like that.' The hardest thing was trying to find a job when no one seemed able to see past her missing limb. 'It's like I was born the day of my accident – no one cared what was on my CV,' Ms France said. 'As someone who draws a lot of my self-worth from work, this was devastating.' By the time she joined the Labor Party in 2016, she was 'pretty angry' and in her 'just bloody do it era'. She paid tribute to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former Queensland premier Steven Miles as her 'greatest political believers', and to her sons Zac and Henry, along with her campaign team and the Dickson community. 'I am one of the first women with a disability to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first person to unseat an Opposition Leader,' she said. 'Kindness, a helping hand, opportunity and open doors have got me here. And that's what I will be giving to the people of Dickson.'
Sydney Morning Herald
25-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Allan has time to abandon Melbourne's gargantuan folly. But it's about to run out
The way the SRL East contracts are structured, construction and engineering companies working on the project bill the state on a monthly basis. Under this pay-as-you-dig arrangement, consortia are paid profits only on costs they have incurred and work they have done. This means that if the government quit the SRL now, it could break the main works contracts it has already signed for a fraction of their nominal, $5.3 billion value. There are no hidden nasties like there were in the East West Link contract the former Coalition government booby-trapped for Labor on the eve of the 2014 state election. Once the tunnel boring machine is loaded onto freight transport in Guangzhou, the costs incurred by the main works consortia – this first to get its hands dirty is the Suburban Connect consortia comprising of Acciona, CPB Contractors and Ghella – will escalate quickly. By Christmas, the Victorian government will be standing deep in a hole at Clarinda with a choice only to keep digging. This calculus should be front-of-mind for anyone reading revelations by my colleagues Patrick Hatch and Kieran Rooney about the North West Strategic Assessment, a wafty title given to a secret government document detailing urgent rail projects needed in parts of Melbourne far removed from the proposed route of SRL East. In the eight years since a room full of PwC consultants started dreaming up plans for an orbital rail loop around Melbourne, the public transport needs of the city's fast-growing western and northern suburbs has gone from pressing to dire. Loading Former premier Daniel Andrews promised to electrify the Melton and Wyndham lines within weeks of unveiling his plans for SRL. While nothing has been done on the former, the latter is ploughing ahead despite Infrastructure Australia warning about the business case and funding model and the federal government privately urging the state to change tracks. Premier Jacinta Allan and many of her ministers remain convinced of the electoral popularity of the SRL. Two days after the federal election wiped out the last two Liberal-held seats in Melbourne's eastern suburbs and silenced murmurings around her leadership, Allan went so far as to suggest it's the SRL wot won it. Yet how can a Labor government, in good conscience, prioritise another rail line for a part of Melbourne already well serviced by public transport above the provision of basic transport services for communities living in neglected parts of the city? As one Labor MP who represents a Melbourne growth area explained, access to reliable public transport isn't just about moving people around or enabling townhouse and high-rise developments. Fundamentally, it is about opportunity to study, to work and to prosper. Loading That opportunity should not be equal only for people living east of the Maribyrnong River or inside Melbourne's ring road. The state and federal government's combined $4 billion investment to rebuild Sunshine station and untangle the knot of metro, regional and freight lines that run past its existing platforms is the first significant step towards modern rail transport for people living in Caroline Springs, Melton, Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. It should be the start of a more substantial pivot away from giving Melbourne's east what it wants and providing the west and north what they need. SRL East is a project which, in the unlikely event it is completed on time, will run its first service in 2035. Its opportunity cost is being counted now, on a daily basis, across health, mental health, education and other essential services, where jobs are being cut and agencies defunded. Loading In the new currency of Victoria's public sector, every metre of SRL tunnel equates to $130 million that could otherwise be spent on teachers or nurses or preventive healthcare or government schools. Before the last state election, when then opposition leader Matthew Guy promised to axe the SRL and redirect the money into hospitals, Daniel Andrews delivered a pithy retort. 'Not rail or hospitals,' he tweeted. 'Both.' It was a brilliant line and, as it turns out, complete bollocks.
The Age
25-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Allan has time to abandon Melbourne's gargantuan folly. But it's about to run out
The way the SRL East contracts are structured, construction and engineering companies working on the project bill the state on a monthly basis. Under this pay-as-you-dig arrangement, consortia are paid profits only on costs they have incurred and work they have done. This means that if the government quit the SRL now, it could break the main works contracts it has already signed for a fraction of their nominal, $5.3 billion value. There are no hidden nasties like there were in the East West Link contract the former Coalition government booby-trapped for Labor on the eve of the 2014 state election. Once the tunnel boring machine is loaded onto freight transport in Guangzhou, the costs incurred by the main works consortia – this first to get its hands dirty is the Suburban Connect consortia comprising of Acciona, CPB Contractors and Ghella – will escalate quickly. By Christmas, the Victorian government will be standing deep in a hole at Clarinda with a choice only to keep digging. This calculus should be front-of-mind for anyone reading revelations by my colleagues Patrick Hatch and Kieran Rooney about the North West Strategic Assessment, a wafty title given to a secret government document detailing urgent rail projects needed in parts of Melbourne far removed from the proposed route of SRL East. In the eight years since a room full of PwC consultants started dreaming up plans for an orbital rail loop around Melbourne, the public transport needs of the city's fast-growing western and northern suburbs has gone from pressing to dire. Loading Former premier Daniel Andrews promised to electrify the Melton and Wyndham lines within weeks of unveiling his plans for SRL. While nothing has been done on the former, the latter is ploughing ahead despite Infrastructure Australia warning about the business case and funding model and the federal government privately urging the state to change tracks. Premier Jacinta Allan and many of her ministers remain convinced of the electoral popularity of the SRL. Two days after the federal election wiped out the last two Liberal-held seats in Melbourne's eastern suburbs and silenced murmurings around her leadership, Allan went so far as to suggest it's the SRL wot won it. Yet how can a Labor government, in good conscience, prioritise another rail line for a part of Melbourne already well serviced by public transport above the provision of basic transport services for communities living in neglected parts of the city? As one Labor MP who represents a Melbourne growth area explained, access to reliable public transport isn't just about moving people around or enabling townhouse and high-rise developments. Fundamentally, it is about opportunity to study, to work and to prosper. Loading That opportunity should not be equal only for people living east of the Maribyrnong River or inside Melbourne's ring road. The state and federal government's combined $4 billion investment to rebuild Sunshine station and untangle the knot of metro, regional and freight lines that run past its existing platforms is the first significant step towards modern rail transport for people living in Caroline Springs, Melton, Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. It should be the start of a more substantial pivot away from giving Melbourne's east what it wants and providing the west and north what they need. SRL East is a project which, in the unlikely event it is completed on time, will run its first service in 2035. Its opportunity cost is being counted now, on a daily basis, across health, mental health, education and other essential services, where jobs are being cut and agencies defunded. Loading In the new currency of Victoria's public sector, every metre of SRL tunnel equates to $130 million that could otherwise be spent on teachers or nurses or preventive healthcare or government schools. Before the last state election, when then opposition leader Matthew Guy promised to axe the SRL and redirect the money into hospitals, Daniel Andrews delivered a pithy retort. 'Not rail or hospitals,' he tweeted. 'Both.' It was a brilliant line and, as it turns out, complete bollocks.
Sydney Morning Herald
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
These parents say their crumbling state school isn't being fixed because of who they vote for
A group of Melbourne parents say their bayside state primary school is crumbling into disrepair and being neglected by the Victorian government because it sits in an affluent Liberal-held electorate. The long-running maintenance issues at the 150-year-old Brighton Primary School came to a head this year when the floors in four classrooms and a student bathroom had to be ripped out after being eaten by termites. The school's 500-plus students are learning in 50-year-old demountable classrooms just metres away from a busy train line, collapsing brick walls are creating no-go zones and the campus has been refused grant funding to replace its 30-year-old playground for three years running. The school council says parents believe the school is being overlooked by the state Labor government because it is in an affluent suburb and a Liberal political stronghold. The party's local state MP described the situation as 'reprehensible'. The Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA) said it responded promptly to maintenance issues at Brighton Primary and that it was supporting the school to ensure student and staff safety. But school council president Aaron Stead said maintenance has been underfunded for decades, despite it being one of just four government schools in metropolitan Melbourne to offer specialist teaching to deaf children. 'Where the school has really struggled for the last few decades in getting any funding from the government is capital infrastructure,' Stead said. 'We've got 14 demountables or portables that are up to 50 years old, they're in various states of disrepair, they're under-sized for current learning standards, the number of students you can get into them is not what's recommended by the state government.'
