Shelley Archer

Shelley Frances Archer (born 15 October 1958) is a former Australian politician.

She worked in several government departments throughout the 1980s, and was the cause of some controversy when she was promoted from a junior position with the Office of the Parliamentary Secretary in the Department of Premier and Cabinet to a much more senior position with the state Office of Industrial Relations in 1989.

It was during this time, in 1990, that she began a relationship with unionist Kevin Reynolds, whom she later married.

She has a daughter, Melanie, two stepsons Rod and Clint.

Grandchildren Taylah and Kobe.

She was subsequently sacked by the OIR in 1992 after being tried and convicted on 35 counts of welfare fraud, and unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the state Industrial Relations Commission.

In 1993, Archer took up a position as an industrial advocate with the State School Teachers Union.

She worked with the union for four years before being fired amidst union infighting in 1998.

She had been on stress leave for six months prior to her dismissal due to claimed harassment by colleagues.

Archer subsequently won an unfair dismissal case against the union, successfully arguing that she had been targeted because of her relationship with Reynolds, but lost a separate action for discrimination.

The conviction was later declared spent in 2002, after the requisite ten-year period had passed.

She made an unsuccessful bid for the national presidency of the ALP in 2003.

In December 2003, Archer nominated herself for party pre-selection to contest a seat in the Mining and Pastoral electoral region of the Legislative Council at the 2005 state election.

She won the top position on the party's ticket for the region due to the party's affirmative action rules, displacing Minister for Local Government Tom Stephens, who was forced to seek a seat in the Legislative Assembly to remain in parliament.

Archer served as the campaign director for the campaign of Cimlie Bowden for the seat of Canning at the 2004 federal election.

She was a Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from May 2005, representing the Mining and Pastoral electoral region.

She later worked as a senior industrial organiser with the Australian Nursing Federation, before gaining a position as an electorate officer to Legislative Council member Graham Giffard, a position which she held until her election to parliament in 2005.

This ensured her election to the Legislative Council, and she took office in July 2005.

In August 2005, Archer, along with fellow incoming MLC Vince Catania, called for a public debate on lifting the state's ban on the mining of uranium, the support of which had long been party policy.

She became one of the most ardent opponents of the policy, and called for the setting aside of budget funds to research the merits of uranium mining.

Facing firm opposition from Premier Geoff Gallop, Archer and Catania later shifted their attention to overturning the federal party's ban on new mines, preparing a motion which they could take to the party's national conference.

She made an unsuccessful bid for the position of ALP state president in 2005.

A former union official, she was one of several state MPs to become involved in the 2006–2007 Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into the dealings of former-Premier-turned-lobbyist Brian Burke.

The partner of influential unionist Kevin Reynolds, she was associated with the conservative wing of the party.

In late 2006, the West Australian Corruption and Crime Commission launched a high-profile investigation into the dealings of former Premier Brian Burke, a lifelong family friend of Archer.

The investigation continued for a number of months, forcing the resignations of three government ministers.

Archer resigned from the ALP in November 2007.

Archer was born into a family of sixteen children.

She is the daughter of Ted Archer, a prominent unionist with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association and Australian Workers' Union.

A similar motion was later adopted by the national conference in 2007, with the support of both former leader Kim Beazley and current leader Kevin Rudd.

She later broke ranks with her party again over the issue of poker machines, calling for their introduction in regional areas to provide another source of income for rural pubs.

In late February 2007, the commission turned its focus to Archer after the commission heard a taped call between her and Burke which revealed that she had faxed him a confidential letter from the Broome Shire Council to Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan.

The commission's inquiries culminated in an intense session on 28 February, when, under intense questioning from the commission's lawyers, Archer admitted that she had contacted MacTiernan and Fisheries Minister Jon Ford to obtain often-confidential information for Burke, had allowed Burke to write a letter that she subsequently sent to Ford in her name, and had acted as a regular go-between of Burke and several ministers.

She strongly denied any wrongdoing during the hearings, referring to Burke as "my mentor" and describing her "undying friendship" with him.

The revelations before the commission had immediate consequences for Archer.

Opposition Leader Paul Omodei immediately called for her resignation, a call which he repeated regularly over the following weeks.

Archer initially remained defiant, declaring that anyone trying to expel her from the party would "need a sledgehammer", threatening legal action if such a move occurred, and vowing that she would continue to meet with Burke.

Carpenter publicly labelled her behaviour "unacceptable and reprehensible", but refused to expel her in the face of opposition and media pressure.

He was accused both in parliament and in the media of being afraid to take action against Archer because of her relationship with Reynolds, by now a powerful factional leader within the party, an accusation which Carpenter strongly denied.

A further factor that was noted in the press was the party's lack of control over the Legislative Council; if Archer was expelled, they would have to rely on her vote as an independent, giving her and Reynolds substantially greater power.