[2] Briggs grew up in the River Murray town of Mildura, where his father was a local bank teller and his mother volunteered in the canteen at the Sacred Heart Catholic primary school.

After the 2010 election Briggs was given the position of chair of the Coalition's Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee as part of the opposition led by Tony Abbott.

[7] As part of his role as the Chairman of the Coalition's Scrutiny of Government Committee, Briggs wrote The Little Book of Big Labor Waste with the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, and the Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey.

For the next two months, Briggs insisted that he had damaged his anterior cruciate ligament while jogging the following morning, and had not been not involved in shattering an expensive Italian marble table in Abbott's office.

[10][11] On 20 September 2015, in the incoming Turnbull government, Briggs' portfolio in the outer ministry was changed to Minister for Cities and the Built Environment.

[10] Briggs' wife Estée, a former Liberal staffer, responded hours later on Facebook by posting a family picture of the two along with their three young children, and reportedly said the scandal was a "complete exaggeration and over-reaction".

[14] Minutes after Briggs' press conference, Mal Brough also stood aside from the First Turnbull Ministry due to an investigation by the Australian Federal Police over the alleged copying of the diary of former speaker Peter Slipper.

In April 2016, Briggs supported calls from two state Liberal parliamentarians for seal culling in South Australia, after witnessing a "massacre" of dozens of fairy penguins on Kangaroo Island.

[18] Briggs was beaten at the 2016 federal election by his former staffer Rebekha Sharkie, who successfully contested Mayo for the Nick Xenophon Team.