Bridget Archer crossed the floor and her party. Why is she running for the Liberals again?
Bridget Archer didn’t expect to be returning to politics so soon.
In fact, perhaps she didn’t think she’d be returning in 2025 at all — despite Bass being a marginal seat federally, Archer losing the seat to Labor newbie Jess Teesdale was one of the surprises of the May election. Her reputation for leading with principle (so much so that she was awarded for her political leadership in 2024) and being a “true Liberal” was enough to compensate for the sins of one deeply unpopular leader in Scott Morrison, but not two. Peter Dutton was an albatross, and she’s said as much. “It was devastating for me personally,” Archer tells me over the phone.
State politics wasn’t “on the bingo card” for 2025. But when the Tasmania budget crisis saw the Labor opposition successfully bring a motion...
