Bridget Archer

Bridget Kathleen Archer (born 18 May 1975) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2019 federal election.

She is a member of the Liberal Party and represents the Division of Bass in Tasmania.

Archer was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to a teenage mother.

As a six-week-old baby, she was adopted by bank workers Barry and Marian Whelan, who already had a son and daughter.

The Whelans separated when Archer was eight and she remained with her adoptive father.

However, he died not long after, and Archer moved to Ravenswood, a suburb of Launceston, to live with her mother, who had remarried.

Archer revealed that she was subjected to sexual abuse by her stepfather, whom she has described as "an aggressive, emotionally abusive and controlling alcoholic".

She attended Ravenswood Primary School but was then sent to board at Launceston Church Grammar School, only ten minutes from her home, on the insistence of her stepfather.

The turmoil in her family life contributed to "misbehaviour and recklessness".

She was expelled from Launceston Grammar, and failed Year 12.

Despite that, she was admitted to the University of Tasmania, although she soon dropped out.

She worked at the Tasmanian Herbarium from 1995 to 1999, as a botanical curator, and later worked in "a variety of mostly casual administrative and hospitality jobs", including at the 2000 Summer Olympics, before returning to university.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and political science, followed by a graduate certificate in international politics.

Archer was elected to the George Town Council in 2009.

She served as deputy mayor from 2011 to 2014 and then as mayor until resigning in 2019 to enter federal politics.

Archer is a member of the moderate faction of the Liberal Party.

She served as secretary and treasurer of the Liberal Party's George Town branch from 2012 to 2013.

She stood unsuccessfully in Bass at the 2018 state election, as one of five candidates on the party's ticket.

In November 2018, Archer announced that she would run for Liberal preselection in Bass.

She was elected to parliament at the 2019 federal election, defeating the incumbent Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate Ross Hart.

In December 2020, Archer publicly criticised the Morrison government's trial of a cashless debit card to deliver welfare payments, stating that she would oppose its use within her own electorate and describing it as a "punitive measure enacted on the presumption that all welfare recipients within the trial areas are incapable of managing their finances and require the government's assistance".

The House of Representatives passed legislation to make the card permanent by one vote, with Archer abstaining from voting despite her earlier criticism.

Archer has crossed the floor several times, including:

Archer has five children with her husband Winston.

After marrying, they moved to his family property outside George Town, where they farm sheep and beef cattle.