Gordon Wetzel Ashley (born 15 September 1941) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. Born in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, he received a Diploma of

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

from the

Melbourne College of Divinity The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university of specialisation in divinity. It is constituted by eleven theological colleges from eight denominations. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest ...

, and also a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

in 1973. In 1968 he became a migration officer in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, moving to the Australian Centre in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1969 and Australia House in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1972 before returning to Australia in 1973. In 1975 he became Publicity and Development Officer with the Productivity Promotion Council of Australia, but returned to London in 1978 to become Professions Adviser (Migration) with the Australian High Commission. In 1982 he returned to Australia as a self-employed personnel consultant. An active member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, he unsuccessfully contested the seat of Aston in the 1987 federal election. In 1992, he was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

as the member for the newly created seat of Bayswater. It had been created as a notional

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

seat, but Ashley claimed it for the Liberals as part of the massive

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

landslide that year. He held the seat as a backbencher until 2002, when he was defeated by Labor's

Peter Lockwood Peter John Lockwood is an ICT professional and former Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, from 2002 to 2006. He started working life in the Commonwealth Bank, but gave that up t ...

. He contested the Liberal preselection for the seat in 2006 and was initially endorsed, but his preselection was withdrawn by the party's administration committee in favour of photography business owner

Heidi Victoria Heidi Victoria (born Heidi Mitterlehner on 12 October 1967) is a professional photographer and former Australian politician. She was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing Bayswater for the Liberal Party from 2006 to 2018. ...

. Ashley ran instead as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

and gained 9.2% of the vote; his preferences went towards ensuring Victoria's defeat of Lockwood.

References

1941 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians University of Divinity alumni University of Melbourne alumni {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub