The Greens' 23-year-old new West Australian senator Jordon Steele-John was sporting cuts on his knuckles when he delivered his first press conference.
It wasn't due to the fledgling politician getting in any fisticuffs, but rather from scraping skin on the narrow doorways of Parliament House on Friday.
The university student and disability advocate with cerebral palsy uses a wheelchair and Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale pointed out his knuckles to journalists.
"The doorways in this place are just too narrow: you cannot get a chair through them," he said.
The toilets for MPs' offices did not provide access either, with the nearest disabled bathroom a long distance away on carpet that was difficult to move on, he said.
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Staff are hurriedly making adjustments to his office to help him.
Senator Steele-John said while parliamentary staff had been fantastic, it raised questions about why the "people's house" did not cater suitably for disabled people.
"Was it was never considered that somebody with a disability would be an MP, or a minister or staffer and what does that say about society more broadly, the way in which we think about disability?" he said.
But Senator Steele-John isn't the first. Fellow West Australian Graham Edwards, who was in a wheelchair after losing both legs in the Vietnam war, served as a Labor MP in the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2007.
However, the dominant theme on Friday was joy that the upper house will welcome its youngest ever member, especially for the Greens, which lost Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters over the dual citizenship scandal.
Senator Steele-John has an English accent, but says he renounced his UK citizenship in 2013.
He is filling the WA seat left vacant when his mentor Mr Ludlam resigned in July after it emerged he was a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand, sparking the current crisis.
He told reporters he was very aware that he had the opportunity to bring the perspective and voices of youths and people with disabilities into parliament.
"Only now do we have somebody with the lived experience of a disability serving in the senate, which will soon be considering matters in relation to the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), which is one of the most significant reforms in the space," he said.
Senator Di Natale said his "heart was bursting with pride" at Senator Steele-John's appointment.
"He is an outstanding young man who is going to make an incredible contribution," he said.
