Ali France unseated Peter Dutton. It may have never happened without one quick-thinking doctor

Australia Broadcast Center

22-07-2025

Long before Ali France ended Peter Dutton's 24-year stranglehold on the seat of Dickson, she was defying the odds.
And now, as the new Labor MP enters parliament, the surgeon who saved her life by taking her leg in 2011 is telling his story for the first time.
Martin Wullschleger had to act without permission and without wasting any time as her heart was close to stopping — blood toxicity from her dying, crushed leg was going to kill her.
"I realised very quickly that unfortunately her dying leg made the whole body so sick that there was no other option than putting a tourniquet on again to save her life," Professor Wullschleger told 7.30.
It was the start of something bigger for Ms France, but for others, the ordeal could have easily broken them.
In 2011, Ali France was satisfied.
She balanced motherhood — two boys, Zac and Henry — with a busy communications career working for a Brisbane MP, Steven Miles.
Her life-altering moment came without warning in an underground car park.
She was taking her youngest son Zac — four years old at the time — to a doctor's appointment at a Brisbane shopping centre.
"We're waiting for the lift and an out-of-control car came towards us," she told 7.30.
"I just had a split second to try to push Zac out of the way."
She described taking "the full brunt of the car" and becoming pinned against another vehicle.
"I was awake and I was shouting but there was so much smoke — the wheels were still turning around and around," she recalled.
"I couldn't see what had happened with Zac and I was just screaming for the guy to get the car off me.
Ali France's left leg had been crushed from her thigh down.
Passers-by — two teenage boys who'd been at the gym upstairs — stemmed the bleeding with a tourniquet made of clothing before paramedics rushed her to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
She doesn't remember the pain.
"I do remember a light and people standing over me, but I don't remember any pain or anything."
Trauma surgeon professor Martin Wullschleger has a more vivid recollection.
"I met her in the emergency department and I remember seeing her leg, which was badly smashed, injured, broken, with a large wound and a tourniquet on there," he told 7.30.
"Initially I wasn't directly involved because the vascular surgeons and the orthopaedic surgeons were looking after her, so I basically kept an eye on it."
The surgeons had stabilised the crushed leg and moved her to the intensive care unit, where her recovery began.
It was there Professor Wullschleger became critically involved when he noticed her condition deteriorating.
"I was in ICU to see my other patient and then a few minutes later … I saw in my periphery that they were struggling with Ali," he told 7.30.
With no time to grab a medical tourniquet, Professor Wullschleger wrapped a towel around Ms France's leg to stop the dangerous toxins re-surging through her body.
That's when they decided to amputate.
"That's why the term 'life before limb' is important; it's a difficult decision," he said.
"The tricky part is you have to make your decision very quick because otherwise it's too late, all over."
Professor Wullschleger described the amputation as a straightforward, routine operation.
What was remarkable, he said, was Ms France's response.
"Yes, the leg's lost, but life's not lost — she took it really well. I mean, she had her ups and downs for sure, but she just did amazing."
Ms France told 7.30 she felt lucky Professor Wullschleger was rostered on that day.
"I was just very lucky that day that Martin took that decision and he gave me the gift of being able to be a mum to my children," she said.
Ali France's son Zac, now 18, doesn't remember the accident where he escaped unscathed, but watched his mum endure multiple operations, rehabilitation, and post-traumatic stress.
"The four or five years after my accident, I suffered terribly with post-traumatic stress disorder. Really terrible, not wanting to go out of the house," Ms France said, describing the "mum-guilt" she felt while coming to terms with her disability.
"It was about the idea that I couldn't protect my child from things. I couldn't protect them."
She described being "at a really low point" in her mental health while struggling with the adjustment.
"Being in a wheelchair, I also had to just face all these ridiculous barriers in the community itself. That was a real shock to me. I was very naive about the realities of disability.
"And I really felt after that that I just had to throw myself into whatever I could to demonstrate to people that I was still the same person."
On a specially constructed prosthetic, she got back on her feet.
Driven by the desire to walk beside her two boys again, she conquered rehabilitation, then canoeing — as a champion para-athlete — and became a fierce advocate for others living with disabilities.
"That experience after I lost my leg, it drove me into politics," Ms France said.
"I think over time, definitely building into the second campaign, I really knew that I just had to be myself and I really leaned into just being me.
"I think that's what the community wants to see, but it took some time."
Ali France's strategy was playing the long game — making serious headway against Peter Dutton, often seeking counsel from her eldest son, Henry.
"I had him in my ears every day of the campaign saying, 'Mum, you can do this — this is your time,'" she said.
"He was very optimistic about it."
Her father, Peter Lawlor — a former state MP — described Henry as "ahead of the curve", with a finger on the pulse of politics at all levels.
"Henry really thought that she could win it — and he was right," he said.
"But in politics, like in life, you don't always get what you deserve."
In the lead up to campaign number three, two cruel blows came in quick succession.
Henry was diagnosed with leukaemia, and while he received treatment, his father, Ms France's ex-husband, Clive, lost his own battle with cancer.
She told Henry she planned to withdraw from the fight for Dickson.
"I told him, 'I am not going to want to be anywhere but here with you,' and he was furious about that," she said.
"He said to me all along, he said, 'Mum, you're going to win it this time. You've worked so hard for this.'
Henry passed away in February 2024, aged 19.
His bedroom is like a time capsule, his belongings untouched and unmoved.
Being here brings back one of Ms France's fondest memories with Henry, one of the last at home.
"One night he said to me, 'Mum, can I come and sleep next to you?' and he did. And I just watched him all night," she recounted.
"I think looking back, I think he was frightened — he still needed his mum."
On May 3, 2025 — after seven years and three campaigns — Ali France, a single mum from north Brisbane, defeated Peter Dutton, becoming the first person to oust an opposition leader and the first woman with a disability to be elected to federal parliament.
"I hope that people see me and see a different type of politician, and that it is absolutely possible for somebody who's been through a lot of trauma, who has a disability, who openly talks about mental health struggles," she said.
"I hope that people see that and think, 'Yeah, I could do that one day, that's what I've been through.'
The surgeon who saved her life agrees.
"Talking to her, she's an optimistic, glass-half-full person, which connected with me but also taught me, inspired me," professor Martin Wullschleger told 7.30.
"I think it's good to have people in parliament that have gone through stuff and are open about it, because we can all learn from that."
Top of Ms France's priority list remains the people of Dickson.
"I want them to feel that they can come to me with their stories and their issues, and that I am there to listen, and I want to be the person that so many people were for me in getting me to this place where I am now," she said.
"Just that simple act of kindness can just change somebody's world and life, and it's happened to me so many times that I think being the local representative, I'm hopeful that I can be that person, and I'm hopeful that I can deliver what I've said I will deliver."
Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.