‘Party of free speech but not you lady, you can sit down’: defiant maverick challenges ‘grey men of the Liberal Party’

An incendiary push to dump sitting Liberal Bridget Archer has sparked crisis meetings, cancelled preselection votes and alleged dirty-tricks by ‘grey men’, amid new curbs on candidates’ free speech.

The moderate Tasmanian Liberal MP for the seat of Bass, Bridget Archer, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

An incendiary push to dump sitting Liberal MP Bridget Archer has sparked crisis meetings, cancelled preselection votes and ­alleged dirty-tricks by “grey men”, amid new curbs on party candidates’ free speech.

Preselection votes for Ms ­Archer’s northern Tasmanian marginal seat of Bass and neighbouring Braddon, held by fellow Liberal MP Gavin Pearce, were due to be conducted on November 18 and 12 respectively.

However, the party’s state executive has cancelled the votes following a push by senior conservatives to deselect the outspoken moderate Ms Archer.

Those votes will now not be held until March, in a bid to take some heat out of the situation. As well, a new “candidate agreement” – described as an affront to free speech by some Liberals – has been adopted to force candidates to toe the party line.

Some senior conservatives want Ms Archer dumped, partly over her claim that Liberal leader Peter Dutton “weaponised” child abuse in Aboriginal communities via his royal commission push.

They said the outspoken Ms ­Archer had “gone too far”, was crossing the floor too often and was “out of touch” with her electorate, as evidenced by a 61 per cent No vote in the voice ­referendum, despite her strong Yes advocacy.

Ms Archer, a George Town beef and sheep farmer who has tapped into Tasmanians’ love of a maverick, challenged her internal critics to put their names to their attacks.

“(They are) the unnamed, grey men of the Liberal Party,” she told The Weekend Australian. “No one puts their name to that stuff. There are a lot of people doing a lot of talking, criticising me for speaking my mind, but if I go out and say something, I put my name to it.

“These people – with their gossiping, criticising and undermining, and running off to the media to further whatever agenda they have – none of them has come to have a conversation with me about it or been prepared to put their name to it.”

She doubled down on her criticism of the decision by Mr Dutton and her party to move for a royal commission into child abuse in ­Indigenous communities.

“What happened to me in the wake of that (crossing the floor) demonstrates what was trying to be done – which was weaponising it,” she said.

The vote she crossed the floor against was not on a royal commission as such, but instead a “stunt” to suspend standing ­orders, she said. “It was always going to fail, so that you can turn around and say to the government ‘you voted against doing anything about Indigenous child sexual abuse’,” she said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“That put me in a position where I was apparently having to be an apologist for child sexual abuse, as a person with lived ­experience. That is weaponising it.

“What you could have done is say ‘there’s been all of these recommendations and inquiries into this issue that haven’t been implemented’ and hold the government to account.”

She believed an Indigenous-­focused royal commission was inconsistent with Mr Dutton and the party’s argument against the voice. “You’ve just spent months telling the country you don’t want be divided by race but you chose to pick a royal commission into child sexual abuse just in Indigenous communities,” she said.

It comes as Mr Pearce denied reports he threatened to quit unless Ms Archer was dumped. He also declined to comment on ­suggestions by sources that he was one of those wanting the outspoken moderate brought into line or jettisoned.

Ms Archer said it would be “very disappointing” if Mr Pearce had sought to influence her preselection. “It is a matter for the grassroots members of the division of Bass in the Liberal Party to decide – and beyond that for the constituents of Bass to decide whether they want me to continue,” she said, adding: “Gavin’s preselection and representation of the people of Braddon is none of my concern and I wouldn’t seek to interfere.”

The former George Town mayor accused her opponents of exaggerating her record of crossing the floor. “I’ve voted with the Coalition over 800 times on ­recorded votes,” she said.

“The amount of times I’ve taken a divergent view is in the minimum. While it might have been on 28 occasions, it would be on (only) half a dozen substantive issues: integrity, climate change, religious discrimination, housing, whistleblower protections. This is a party of free speech but ‘gosh, not you, lady – you can sit down’.”

Ms Archer defended her strong support for the voice. “I believe it was the honest and authentic thing to do – to say that I would be voting Yes and why,” she said.

“If the suggestion is that I’m increasingly out touch with my electorate then I’d refer to the results of the last election: I held the (notoriously fickle) seat for the first time in 20 years with an increased margin against a national swing.”

Liberal state director Peter Coulson said the preselection process was “confidential”. “The Liberals are a strong and united team providing a clear choice to the ­Albanese government,” he said.