Gordon Wetzel Ashley is a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician.

Born in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, he received a Diploma of Theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 from the Melbourne College of Divinity

Melbourne College of Divinity

The Melbourne College of Divinity is a theological education organisation located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.The MCD is an ecumenical consortium of a number of theological colleges from a number of denominations...

, and also a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 from Melbourne University in 1973. In 1968 he became a migration officer in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, moving to the Australian Centre in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 in 1969 and Australia House in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 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

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, he unsuccessfully contested the seat of Aston

Division of Aston

The Division of Aston is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Tilly Aston, a blind writer and teacher who helped found the Library of the Victorian Association of Braille Writers in 1894. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne,...

 in the 1987 federal election.

In 1992, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Victorian Legislative Assembly

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...

 as the member for Bayswater

Electoral district of Bayswater

The Electoral district of Bayswater is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers the suburbs of Bayswater, Heathmont and Wantirna as well as parts of other neighbouring suburbs in outer eastern Melbourne....

, a new seat notionally held by the Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

. He held the seat as a backbencher until 2002, when he was defeated by Labor's Peter Lockwood

Peter Lockwood

Peter Lockwood is a former Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, for a single term from 2002 to 2006....

. 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

Heidi Victoria is a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly representing Bayswater for the Liberal Party of Australia.- Early life :...

. Ashley ran instead as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

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