Liberals’ Rochelle Halstead aims to take care of unfinished business

BASS Coast Shire Council Mayor, Cr Rochelle Halstead, has won Liberal Party pre-selection to run in the Victorian electorate of Bass at the November 2026 State Election.

Cr Halstead won a two-horse race for pre-selection on Thursday, April 16.

The margin of her victory has not been disclosed.

She will be one of two councillors on the Bass Coast Shire Council set to contest the next State Election with Cr Mat Morgan the endorsed Greens’ candidate for the Upper House electorate of Eastern Victoria.

And she may not be the last.

There has also been a suggestion that another of Bass Coast’s nine councillors might be considering throwing a hat into the ring for the upcoming poll.

It is not Ms Halstead’s first rodeo.

Now in her second year as Mayor of Bass Coast, Cr Halstead also served as a councillor and Mayor of the City of Frankston after her election there in 2003.

It was here, also, that she contested the State Electorate of Frankston for the Liberal Party in 2006, securing 40.76% of the primary vote and only narrowly losing to Labor’s Alistair Harkness.

She intended to run again for the Liberals in 2010 but a family tragedy, in which her late husband contracted and ultimately died of cancer in 2011, changed the course of her life.

The Liberals’ Geoff Shaw went on to take the seat of Frankston, serving one term until 2014.

Having worked for Parliament of Victoria, the education sector and the private sector Cr 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.

After serving as Bass Coast Councillor for Westernport Ward from 2020 to 2024 and holding the position of Deputy Mayor in the years 2023 and 2024, Cr. Halstead was returned in the 2024 Election to serve another four years to 2028.

Cr Halstead can continue to serve as both the Mayor of Bass Coast and a councillor until November 3, 2026 when the election will be officially called, however, she may stand aside for her deputy, Cr Brett Tessari, at anytime to put more effort into electioneering.

Cr Halstead is yet to make a statement beyond confirming that she had secured Liberal Party endorsement to run for the seat of Bass, presently occupied by Labor’s Jordan Crugnale.

Ms Crugnale, who won the seat in a cliffhanger result in 2022 by 202 votes from former South Gippsland Shire Councillor Aaron Brown, has announced that she will not be standing again in November 2026.

The Labor Party is being represented in the marginal seat of Bass by Chris Buckingham.