Elise Archer: The rise and fall of the long-time Attorney-General and conservative warrior

After working for more than a decade as a top lawyer, Elise Archer made her first foray into politics in 2007. It was the beginning of a brilliant career that would come to a sudden and unexpected end sixteen years later.

Elise Archer at the declaration of polls in 2010.

“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work.”

With that quote from former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Elise Archer announced herself on the political scene, delivering her first speech to the state parliament following her election to the seat of Clark – then known as Denison – in 2010.

It was a fitting introduction for one of the Tasmanian Liberal Party’s foremost conservative warriors.

Born in Launceston in 1971, Ms Archer was educated at Waimea Heights Primary School and Fahan School.

Her mother, Shirley Nylander, worked as a personal assistant to several Tasmanian ministers, opening the young Elise’s eyes to the world of politics from a young age.

Elise Archer outside Parliament House, Hobart, in 2010.

Ms Archer graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Laws. She was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1994.

She spent years plying her trade in the areas of industrial relations, anti-discrimination and insurance law and worked civil and criminal trials. Prior to her election to parliament, Ms Archer was a senior associate and senior litigation lawyer at Dobson Mitchell & Allport (2004-10).

She was an alderman on the Hobart City Council from 2007 until 2010, during which time she infamously butted heads with council colleague and fellow Liberal Sue Hickey.

Ms Archer has served as a member of several boards of not-for-profit organisations, including as director of the Salamanca Arts Centre.

Upon her election to parliament, she said her “desire to help and assist others” had driven her to pursue a career in public life.

In her first speech, she said she primarily wanted to help people to “achieve their own goals”.

“As a female who has encountered some discrimination at times, whether it was intentional or not, I particularly want to ensure that all individuals are given equal opportunity to develop their own talents and to pursue their own aspirations,” she said.

Minister Elise Archer. Question time in the Tasmanian parliament. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ms Archer, now 52, became the first ever woman to be appointed as Speaker of the House of Assembly in 2014, following the election of the Hodgman Liberal government.

She was appointed to Cabinet in 2017 and has held portfolios including Attorney-General, Justice, Corrections, Arts, Environment and Parks, and Racing.

Posting to her Facebook page on Friday afternoon following her resignation, Ms Archer said it was “clear to me that the leadership of the Liberal Party continues to fail to support ambitious women”.

“It takes incredible strength and resilience to be a woman in a senior government role and to strive to be treated the same as male colleagues, despite many years of dedicated, hardworking service,” she wrote.

Ms Archer’s favourite Thatcherism, invoked in her first speech, ends like so: “[Hard work] will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near”.

It’s a quote that now sounds almost cruelly ironic when applied to Ms Archer’s own political career, as someone who clearly aspired to one day hold a higher leadership position.