Fledgling Fisher MP Nat Cook fought through tears as she announced she had stood down from the board of the Sammy D Foundation, the anti-violence charity she founded in memory of her late son Sam.

Delivering an emotional maiden speech to parliament, Cook described the organisation as “something that’s forever close to my heart and I’ll always have a spiritual connection there”.

“The Foundation is my son, the Foundation is our son,” she said.

“I’ll not allow it to ever be used as political ammunition against me; the good it’s done must never be threatened in any way.”

Before December’s tightly-fought by-election, Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire used parliamentary privilege to raise anonymous insinuations about the probity of a million dollar Government grant to the Foundation.

Cook did not allude to the attack specifically, but raised the spectre of falling parliamentary standards, noting “the behaviour I have witnessed in this house does nothing for the reputation of public office”.

Cook paid tearful tribute to Sam, who died from a fatal punch at age 17.

Pausing to collect herself, she recalled the night her son attended a party and was caught up in a brawl instigated by gatecrashers, felled by a single punch: “He didn’t see it coming, he could not defend himself.”

“Our community learnt that bad things happen to good people,” Cook said.

She said she had learned life lessons from her grief – “Life is too short to compromise your integrity for short-term gain” – and urged restraint in political discourse over contentious reforms.

“I would urge anyone making public comment from a position of influence to think very carefully,” she said.

“There is nothing to be gained by creating a sense of panic among the most vulnerable.”

Nat Cook during her maiden speech, as captured by Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan.