Andrew Ronald Brideson (born 19 October 1944) is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1992 until 2006, representing Waverley Province. A former teacher and trade unionist, he was a backbencher for about half of his career. The other half was spent as Chairman of the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee 1996-99 and Chairman of the prestigious Road Safety Committee from 1999–2002. He served two years as Shadow Cabinet Secretary in an understaffed shadow ministry from 2002- 2004. He did not contest the 2006 state election, having a long-standing belief that political parties need to regenerate. Brideson was born in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton, and studied at Bentleigh and McKinnon High Schools. He studied teaching at Frankston Teachers College and the Hawthorn Institute of Education, and occupied teaching positions at various rural schools in the West Gippsland and Wimmera regions between 1964 and 1975. In 1976, he was promoted to the position of deputy principal, and worked in this position in a number of schools. During his teaching career, Brideson had been an active trade unionist in both the Teachers Association of Australia and Victorian Affiliated Teachers Federation, and at the end of the 1983 school year, took up positions heading both organisations. In a rare move for a unionist, Brideson acted as an advisor to several shadow ministers in the conservative Liberal Party state opposition of the time. He was an active participant in the Victorian Trades Hall Council and was a delegate at ACTU conferences. He led the Victorian organisation until his move into politics in October 1992. In the leadup to the 1992 state election, Brideson succeeded in obtaining Liberal preselection for the seat of Waverley Province which was held by the Labor Party. In his first six-year term, he served on the Public Bodies Review Committee (1992–1996).He also served as the parliamentary representative on the Monash University Council from 1997. However, he was overlooked for a ministerial position in Jeff Kennett's Liberal government. He was re-elected at the 1999 election, which saw the Liberal Party lose power to the Labor Party under Steve Bracks, but was subsequently appointed Chairman of the Road Safety Committee regardless. In this way, he headed an inquiry that aimed to bring down the number of road deaths, after it had reached its highest number for several years. Though his term was for the