Gavin Bruce Pearce (born 21 December 1967) is an Australian former politician who served as the member for Braddon in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

until his retirement at the 2025 federal election. He is a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

Early life

Pearce was born in Tasmania to a family which has "lived and farmed in the Sisters Creek region since the 1850s". He served in the army for 20 years, and was stationed in

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

for a period. He later became the president of the Wynyard RSL branch. Prior to entering politics, Pearce farmed beef cattle at

Lapoinya Lapoinya (pronounced La-poin-ya) is a small agricultural centre on the north-west coast of Tasmania west of Wynyard. The name is Tasmanian Aboriginal word for "fern tree", a plant that abounds in those surviving untouched parts of the original ...

. He was vice-chair of the Yolla Producers Cooperative Society, based in Wynyard.

Politics

In October 2018, Pearce won Liberal

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

for the

Division of Braddon The Division of Braddon is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the States and territories of Australia, state of Tasmania. The current MP is Anne Urquhart of the Australian Labor Party, Lab ...

. He had previously stood for preselection at the 2018 Braddon by-election, but was defeated by former Liberal MP

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley Order of Australia, AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize, Archibald, Wynne Prize, ...

. At the 2019 federal election, Pearce defeated the incumbent

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP Justine Keay with a five-point swing on the

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Natio ...

count. It was the third consecutive federal election in which the incumbent MP has been defeated in Braddon. Pearce is a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party. Pearce was re-elected at the

2022 Australian Federal Election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 May 2022, to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Morrison government, Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, soug ...

with a +6.22% swing in the primary vote as well a +4.94% in the two-party-preferred result, despite the Liberal Party facing significant seat losses across Australia. After the 2022 Federal Election and subsequent election of

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party from 2 ...

as leader of the Liberal Party, Pearce was appointed to the Shadow ministry of Peter Dutton as Assistant Shadow Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services which he has served in since 5 June 2022. On 11 June 2024, Pearce announced that he would retire at the

2025 Australian federal election The 2025 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 3 May 2025, to elect members of the 48th Parliament of Australia. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives were up for election, along with 40 ...

, to spend more time with his family. Pearce was announced as a candidate for the 2025 Tasmanian State Election for the state seat of Braddon.

Personal life

Pearce met his first wife Amanda-Jane while they were both in the military. They had one son together before her death from

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph node ...

in 2009, aged 32. As of 2019, he was engaged to Megan McGinty with whom he has one daughter. Pearce lives in

in Tasmania. He owns multiple agriculture properties in Tasmania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Gavin 1967 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Braddon 20th-century Australian farmers Australian Army personnel Military personnel from Tasmania 20th-century Australian military personnel Farmers from Tasmania Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025