Bass Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead 'yes' to state election bid

THE Mayor of the Bass Coast Shire Council, Cr Rochelle Halstead, has confirmed that she has been nominated for Liberal Party preselection to run in the next election campaign in the state’s most marginal seat -Bass.

Asked about reports that she had accepted preselection nomination, Mrs Halstead, said on Sunday this week that she had done so.

“I can confirm that I have been nominated for pre-selection but out of respect for the pre-selection process, I won’t be commenting further at this stage,” said Mrs Halstead this week.

Cr Halstead is understood to have informed council colleagues that she has decided to run for pre-selection, but with no date as to when the Liberal Party will close nominations in Bass or make its endorsed candidate selection.

It is understood that there have presently been two nominations received.

Mrs Halstead was previously the Mayor of Frankston in 2003 and stood for the Victorian state seat of Frankston in 2006 and intended to stand again in 2010 before withdrawing from public life after a family tragedy.

Having worked for Parliament of Victoria, the education sector and the private sector Mrs Halstead is a small business owner in the hospitality industry, a role she shares with her husband Tony. Together they have five children and three grandchildren.

At the last state election, in 2022, the electorate of Bass was decided by literally a “handful of votes”, with Labor’s Jordan Crugnale victorious with 20,803 votes or 50,24%, just 202 votes clear of the Liberals’ Aaron Brown on 20,601 votes or 49.76%.

Effectively it meant that if 102 voters had changed their mind on the day, the result would have gone the other way.

Ms Crugnale has already announced that she will not be seeking re-election and the Labor Party has endorsed the former CEO of the Latrobe Valley Authority, now Regional Development Victoria (Gippsland), CEO of consultancy firm The Fair Co, Chris Buckingham, as its candidate.

If Cr Halstead gains pre-selection, she will be one of two Bass Coast Shire Councillors involved in the November State Election with Cr Mat Morgan the endorsed Greens candidate for the Upper House seat of Eastern Victoria.