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Chris Buckingham, Labor, and Rochelle Halstead, Liberal
Nikole Schellekens
One Nation
Sophie Thorn
Greens
Chris Jobe
Victorian Socialists
By Catherine Watson
THE contest for the Bass electorate is becoming clearer with candidates now announced by the Liberal Party, Labor, Greens, One Nation and Victorian Socialists Party.
At the 2022 election, Bass was the most marginal seat in Victoria with Labor retaining it by just 202 votes as it won 56 lower house seats of 88 across the state. The Liberal Party won19, the Nationals won 9 and the Greens 4.
With the Victorian election just over three months away, the political landscape is very different.
In 2022, One Nation attracted just 0.28 per cent of the vote, although they ran only a few candidates. It is currently polling around 23 per cent across Victoria, according to the latest Roy Morgan poll, just behind the Liberal and Labor parties, both on 26 per cent support
THE contest for the Bass electorate is becoming clearer with candidates now announced by the Liberal Party, Labor, Greens, One Nation and Victorian Socialists Party.
At the 2022 election, Bass was the most marginal seat in Victoria with Labor retaining it by just 202 votes as it won 56 lower house seats of 88 across the state. The Liberal Party won19, the Nationals won 9 and the Greens 4.
With the Victorian election just over three months away, the political landscape is very different.
In 2022, One Nation attracted just 0.28 per cent of the vote, although they ran only a few candidates. It is currently polling around 23 per cent across Victoria, according to the latest Roy Morgan poll, just behind the Liberal and Labor parties, both on 26 per cent support
Chris Buckingham, Labor
The former CEO of the Casey Cardinia Library Corporation and the Latrobe Valley Authority put his hand up after two-term MP Jordan Crugnale decided not to recontest the seat.
Chris Buckingham has strong ties across both ends of the Bass electorate through his work in tourism, his library role, and 35 years of holidaying at Inverloch. A long-time Warragul resident, he is now living full-time in Inverloch to focus on the campaign.
In 2016 he stood for Labor in the federal seat of McMillan (now Monash), achieving a 5.8 per cent swing to Labor but finishing a distant second to veteran Liberal MP Russell Broadbent.
He says the Labor Government should be proud of what it’s achieved in the Bass electorate over Ms Crugnale’s two terms but there is still work to be done.
“I’ll be doing a lot of listening, learning and relationship-building with people who are passionate about their community and want to see change.”
The former CEO of the Casey Cardinia Library Corporation and the Latrobe Valley Authority put his hand up after two-term MP Jordan Crugnale decided not to recontest the seat.
Chris Buckingham has strong ties across both ends of the Bass electorate through his work in tourism, his library role, and 35 years of holidaying at Inverloch. A long-time Warragul resident, he is now living full-time in Inverloch to focus on the campaign.
In 2016 he stood for Labor in the federal seat of McMillan (now Monash), achieving a 5.8 per cent swing to Labor but finishing a distant second to veteran Liberal MP Russell Broadbent.
He says the Labor Government should be proud of what it’s achieved in the Bass electorate over Ms Crugnale’s two terms but there is still work to be done.
“I’ll be doing a lot of listening, learning and relationship-building with people who are passionate about their community and want to see change.”
Rochelle Halstead, Liberal Party
Current Bass Coast Shire councillor Rochelle Halstead brings a wealth of experience and connections as a former mayor of Bass Coast and Frankston.
She was Frankston mayor in 2004 and the unsuccessful Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Frankston in the 2006 state election.
She has lived in Bass Coast for the past decade and was elected a Bass Coast councillor for the Western Port Ward in 2020.
After two terms as deputy mayor, Cr Halstead was elected mayor after the 2024 election and re-elected by her fellow councillors in 2025. She resigned from the position in April after she was announced as the Liberal Party candidate for Bass. She remains on the council.
Having owned and operated the Tides Bar and Grill in Tooradin for several years with her husband, she also has strong connections at the western end of the Bass electorate.
Current Bass Coast Shire councillor Rochelle Halstead brings a wealth of experience and connections as a former mayor of Bass Coast and Frankston.
She was Frankston mayor in 2004 and the unsuccessful Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Frankston in the 2006 state election.
She has lived in Bass Coast for the past decade and was elected a Bass Coast councillor for the Western Port Ward in 2020.
After two terms as deputy mayor, Cr Halstead was elected mayor after the 2024 election and re-elected by her fellow councillors in 2025. She resigned from the position in April after she was announced as the Liberal Party candidate for Bass. She remains on the council.
Having owned and operated the Tides Bar and Grill in Tooradin for several years with her husband, she also has strong connections at the western end of the Bass electorate.
Sophie Thorn, Greens
Cape Paterson resident Sophie Thorn was born in New Zealand and was raised on a beef farm in Tasmania.
She moved to Bass Coast in 2019 and has worked as a mental health worker to support young people and their families across the Bass Coast and South Gippsland for over seven years.
Ms Thorn says she is running because she believes we should all be able to afford a good life.
“Even if we work hard and do everything right, it’s getting harder to get ahead.”
Sophie says that The Greens are running a campaign in Bass that aims to cap rents, bring down the cost of buying a home, make public transport free and frequent, and lower energy bills through real climate action.
Nikole Schellekens, One Nation
Bass resident Ms Schellekens lives on a multi-generational beef farm she has called home most of her life.
Announcing her candidacy this week, One Nation described her as is a farmer, mental health social worker, small business owner and parent with over 20 years of frontline experience across mental health, education and community services.
She said she was standing for One Nation because she believes “Parliament needs representatives with real-world experience who listen, remain accountable and speak up for their community, focused on easing cost-of-living pressures and delivering roads, health, housing and infrastructure that keep pace with growth while protecting Bass's farmland and rural character”.
Ms Schellekens was a candidate in the 2024 Bass Coast Shire Council elections.
If Ms Halstead wins the seat of Bass for the Liberal Party, Ms Shelleken will have first option on filling the vacant council seat as the highest-ranking unsuccessful candidate in the 2024 council election.
Bass resident Ms Schellekens lives on a multi-generational beef farm she has called home most of her life.
Announcing her candidacy this week, One Nation described her as is a farmer, mental health social worker, small business owner and parent with over 20 years of frontline experience across mental health, education and community services.
She said she was standing for One Nation because she believes “Parliament needs representatives with real-world experience who listen, remain accountable and speak up for their community, focused on easing cost-of-living pressures and delivering roads, health, housing and infrastructure that keep pace with growth while protecting Bass's farmland and rural character”.
Ms Schellekens was a candidate in the 2024 Bass Coast Shire Council elections.
If Ms Halstead wins the seat of Bass for the Liberal Party, Ms Shelleken will have first option on filling the vacant council seat as the highest-ranking unsuccessful candidate in the 2024 council election.
Chris Jobe, Victorian Socialists
Bass resident Chris Jobe is a public school teacher, musician, and member of the Australian Education Union and the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file organising group.
He says he’s running as a candidate because he wants an economy and society that puts people before profit. "Labor and the Coalition want us to believe that the problems created by a system that puts corporate profits ahead of people are unavoidable.
“We don't have to accept the way things are. I will fight to end privatisation and build a society where everyone has what they need to live a full, secure and meaningful life.”
Bass resident Chris Jobe is a public school teacher, musician, and member of the Australian Education Union and the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file organising group.
He says he’s running as a candidate because he wants an economy and society that puts people before profit. "Labor and the Coalition want us to believe that the problems created by a system that puts corporate profits ahead of people are unavoidable.
“We don't have to accept the way things are. I will fight to end privatisation and build a society where everyone has what they need to live a full, secure and meaningful life.”
But being dissatisfied is not enough. You need a clear vision and plan to get the state moving in the right direction.
The formula for change equals, dissatisfaction times vision times plan,
Use 10:as being totally dissatisfied, 10 for a fantastic vision and 10 for a great plan. If you can get a score above 800 you can create change.
So I would ask the candidates, “What’s your vision and what’s your plan?”
Ending privatisation of public assets and bringing services back into the public domain will make a massive difference for regular Australians and protect vulnerable people in healthcare, job stress and our aging populations.
Well done Chris Jobe!
This is the century when the tragedy of the commons threatens catastrophe and both sides of the above divide grab half the correct answer and another half that isn't.
One lot have a very sound back to basics social credo, but are off with the fairies when it comes to say global warming. Conversely, the other side is off with the Woke fairies, but actually wants to do something about environmental damage.
I take the view that the global energy shift towards renewables+storage is now in full swing and while governments can slow this move locally for a while, the momentum is now far too great to stop, for that is where the global money, research, patent momentum, technological innovation and industrial power is moving..
What isn't stopping is the Woke capture of our social institutions and their transformation into engines of not just sexual deviance but cutting the cultural roots of a modern society that has made Australia economically prosperous and institutionally stable.
So I am going for Pauline and Co, because they are promising to shut down Woke ideology and break its institutional power..Their environmental policy is hopeless, but larger economic forces will take care of that..
One Nation is still in political short pants and they will have all sorts of problems learning how to actually run the country. But right now, I would vote for a drover's dog if it would guarantee to round up The Woke into a truck bound for a political knackery.
The so called Treaty brought in less than two years after a decisive referendum knockback, the sexual grooming of children in schools and the institutional attacks on anyone who challenges Woke doctrine have been the final straws.
Defenestrate the Woke as a social ascendancy and all else will be forgiven.