Shelley Archer - Early Life and Political Career

Early Life and Political Career

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

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. 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. She made an unsuccessful bid for the national presidency of the ALP in 2003. Archer served as the campaign director for the campaign of Cimlie Bowden for the seat of Canning at the 2004 federal election.

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