Editor’s note: This is an STPL News editorial and contains analysis and opinion, based on publicly reported information and documents linked below.
The council chamber was quiet on Tuesday night.
Measured. Careful. Watched.
Mayor Anthony Marsh chaired the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council meeting under the oversight of government-appointed municipal monitors Prue Digby and Rebecca McKenzie, who were appointed for a 12-month period from 19 January 2026.
Council business still moved.
Cr Stephen Batty secured approval for funding despite officer recommendations against the proposal. The additional cost was approved regardless. Without much surprise, the bloc played the same tune and passed.
When you have clubhouses across Western Port, including Somerville, Tyabb and Hastings without basic facilities like changerooms, it makes you wonder where the Shire’s priorities truly sit and who gets heard first.
Marsh joins Liberal Party and seeks Nepean preselection
Outside the chamber, the bigger story has already landed.
As per our initial reporting, Marsh joined the Liberal Party days before applying for preselection, and that he has been granted an exemption from the party’s usual membership requirements.
The Nepean by-election is scheduled for 2 May 2026 following the resignation of Sam Groth.
Reporting has also raised questions about how the Liberal candidate will be chosen, with claims the party’s state executive will play a decisive role and that a broader rank-and-file vote will not occur in the traditional way.
The written record is now being read back
This is where the paper trail matters.
Ahead of the 2024 council election, Marsh completed the STPL News candidate survey. In that survey he labelled himself as a “genuine independent”.
“I’m genuinely independent and not a ‘teal”
He also completed a candidate questionnaire published by Council Watch. In that document, Marsh’s written statements include:
- “I WILL NOT accept donations from Political Parties”
- “I WILL NOT accept donations from Developers”
- “I WILL NOT accept donations from Unions”
- A statement that councillors are not affiliated with a political party and refuse to join one while serving
These are not vague sentiments. They are direct lines, recorded in writing.
Additionally, The Age also published an article detailing much of the turmoil following the council and the drastic contradiction between Marsh’s statements in 2024 to now.
Now, those statements sit alongside a new reality: a sitting mayor under state monitors, stepping into a state political contest via party preselection.
Politics allows ambition. It allows reinvention. It allows sudden pivots.
But the written record does not move with the pivot.
Marsh may have taught the Peninsula a valuable lesson: if you’re going to serve up bulls***, don’t do it in writing.
