Contrary to basement-dwellers on the internet that believe life-size lizards run parliament, Ali is a real human being – it’s her life experiences that drew her to politics, and it’s those same experiences she draws inspiration from every day – not least her husband Ben, and son Jed.
It’s always feels a bit strange being invited to sports events, especially athletics. As a kid I hated athletics almost as much as swimming.
I remember one day in Grade 2, crying on the morning of the inter school sports day, begging mum to please not make me go.
“Mum, where is Mopsy’s head?” Jed asked … in relation to my pet rabbit who passed away in 1994.
Jed is fascinated by death and the afterlife. And it runs in the family.
Believe it or not it’s the 28th November. Christmas is not far away.
I am hoping for two things: for the world to return to normal (thanks to mass vaccination), and for Jed to not run screaming from the Christmas tree this year.
In both cases, the signs are promising.
Not last Friday but the Friday before, it was bloody hot.
I knocked off work and picked up Jed. I was exhausted and prepared to do anything for 10 minutes of peace, so caved, without resistance, to Jed’s demands for my phone on the drive home.
When I was born, mum was in a bad way.
She had been very sick with toxaemia and she was barely conscious for days.
So my brand new little self was looked after by Dad.
This week I put out a call for people to get vaccinated. It’s our only way out of covid and the lockdowns that we hate with the power of a million suns.
Overwhelmingly people agreed. But not everyone.
Today Ben was charged $65,000 for a strawberry ice cream.
As if lockdown wasn’t hard enough without being ripped off like that.
It was in Jed’s pretend shop, which Ben and I attended many times today and yesterday.
For years I was terrified of vaccines. Not as an act of defiance or identity politics, but because I was genuinely scared.
.
I had lived with severe autism as a sister and I didn’t know if I could go through it as a mother.
Last week was budget week.
I’d had a fairly stressful week leading up to it. My opponents had been lying about the way I work. Falsely claiming that if you collaborate, you’re not independent.
That made me angry.
And the budget made me nervous.
You can’t break new ground without taking risks. Sometimes your risks are rewarded. Other times you fall flat on your face. I’ve experienced both in my 12 years of politics.
