Asher defies call to quit
COUNCILLOR Stephanie Asher has stared down calls for her to resign as a councillor, as she left the door ajar for a crack at higher politics.
The Bellarine councillor, pictured, was yesterday asked about her political intentions, after revelations in the Addy that the former independent had joined the Liberal Party.
“I don’t have any intention of doing so, while I’m a coun- cillor,” Cr Asher told community radio station The Pulse. “If the opportunity came up, maybe I would, maybe I wouldn’t.”
Defeated Bellarine council candidate Tom Roe has called for Cr Asher to resign, claiming she misled voters at last October’s poll.
But the councillor said there was no need to defend herself, as her political affiliations would not change the way she operated.
“I’m not the first person to have joined a party. Do I have to tell them when I’ve joined the tennis club too?” she said with a laugh. “It’s not going to impact the role and what I do.”
Cr Asher stated that after going to Liberal Party fundraisers for years, she didn’t think it was a great surprise that she had joined the party.
“My posters were put up next to (Young Liberals Gee- long president) Trent Sullivan’s all around the Bellarine,” she said.
She also made the point about her posters online last week, when she claimed that “I didn’t present myself as unaligned in 2017”. That contrasts with her media during the election campaign, where she repeatedly stated she had no political allegiance.
Cr Asher was asked on The Pulse less than a fortnight before the election if an endorsement from former mayor Darryn Lyons indicated she was a Liberal Party candidate.
“No I’m running as an independent,” she said. “I think he’s just picked people that he knows and has faith in.”
She also stated that she thought voters preferred independence at a local government level, and took a veiled crack at people running political campaigns.
“There are a few (candidates) I’ve been particularly impressed with, and a couple that I sort of think are party political. I think that’s fairly obvious, but it’s not up to me to be saying that, people can make up their own mind,” she said.
The two-time mayoral candidate said her move to the Liberals and interest in joining the Upper House party ticket for the election was not premeditated.
However she said she had long been interested in the Western Victoria role, and had been considering her options as an independent or with a minor party.