In April 2019, she was selected by the Australian Labor Party to contest the federal seat of Curtin in the 2019 federal election. This seat had been held by former Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop since 1998. Parke withdrew her candidacy for the seat following negative media coverage after she was reported to have told a meeting that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was "worse than the South African system of apartheid". She said her views regarding Palestine-Israel were well known but that she did not want them to be a "distraction from electing a Labor government which will take urgent and strong action on climate change".