Representative Ali France Contact information

Allison Anne France (pron. / ˈ eɪ l iː / “AYY-lee”; née Lawlor; born 13 May 1973) is an Australian politician who has served as the member for Dickson in the House of Representatives since 2025 as a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

France previously contested her seat in 2019 and 2022, both times losing to the incumbent Liberal Party MP Peter Dutton. On her third attempt in the 2025 election, she unseated Dutton, who was the Leader of the Opposition at the time, and became the first Labor MP from Dickson since Cheryl Kernot lost the seat to Dutton in 2001. She also became the first challenger to defeat a sitting Opposition Leader in their own seat.

France is the daughter of Peter Lawlor, former MP for Southport in the Queensland Legislative Assembly. She was born in Durban, South Africa and educated on the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Canberra.

Prior to entering politics, France was a journalist at The Courier-Mail, as well as in Hong Kong, and worked as communications manager for indigenous production company Carbon Media in Brisbane. She is also a former para-athlete and a disability advocate. A disability rights advocate who campaigned for France, Elly Desmarchelier, has been quoted as stating that “All policy is disability policy”.

In 2016, France represented Australia in paracanoeing, winning two team gold medals and a silver at the Outrigger Canoe World Sprint Championships.

France has been a critic of offshore detention, noting that the surgeon who inserted her titanium rod prosthetic leg was a former Iraqi refugee who came to Australia by boat. She ran as the Labor candidate for the seat of Dickson in 2019 and 2022, losing both times to Peter Dutton, who was first elected as the MP for Dickson in 2001. She faced Dutton, then Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition, for a third time at the 2025 Australian federal election, this time defeating him amid a large swing against the Liberals in metropolitan Australia. On the eighth count, over three-fourths of Green preferences flowed to France, allowing her to defeat Dutton on a two-party swing of 7.7 percent. She needed a swing of only 1.8 percent to take the seat off Dutton. France is the third challenger since Federation to defeat a major-party leader in their own seat, and the first to unseat an Opposition Leader.