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Rainsford re-nominates with high hopes for Shire

OVER the years, Dr Katrina Rainsford has kept busy volunteering her time with a number of community initiatives including Footprints the Choir, the Cavendish Redgum Festival and the Victorian Farmers Federation just to name a few.

In addition, she has also juggled locum veterinary work and the running of her family-owned Airbnb.

 Even with this workload, it hasn’t stopped Dr Rainsford’s enthusiasm in running for every Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) election every year since 2004 not to mention having served in the West Wimmera Shire previously.

Dr Rainsford said she was heartened by the calibre and mix of candidates running for Council.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity for the next term of council for this community and to also use my experience to help a new Council do the best job that they can do so that they can actually enjoy their term,” she said.

Dr Rainsford said she believes the upcoming council term is a fresh opportunity to rebuild mutual respect between the community and council.

“You don’t demand respect, you earn it,” she said.

“I really believe the council is for the community.

“It’s their council, it’s their money and they need to have more say and we need to make sure that they are kept informed and sooner rather than later.”

She added that the community are hurting financially saying, “It’s been a really tough season, but more than that, it’s been a really tough five years leading up to COVID.

“Businesses are hurting, people are hurting – Council shouldn’t make it any harder.”

When asked by The Spectator what SGSC achievement she was most proud of, Dr Rainsford’s response was, “Staying positive is an achievement in itself,” but also added what a wonderful asset the HILAC centre has been to Hamilton since it opened in 2006.

“We also stopped the demolition of the Hamilton Outdoor Pool which was built by the community … People didn’t want to lose it and I supported the movement to lobby Council not to demolish it,” she said.

“I’m not too keen on knocking down assets that cost millions to replace.”

Dr Rainsford went on to talk about the Hamilton Gallery and the Civic Hub saying, “I don’t support losing the cinema, in fact we should have two cinemas … and yes, our library needs extending.

“I don’t believe we should lose any of those services to grow the gallery, so I’ll be at the table to make sure we don’t … start compromising,” she said.

“If I’m at the table in November, there’ll be better communication with the community – they will understand the budgets and we will not be going ahead with any major projects if we don’t have the funding for the new Civic Hub or we cut it according to a cloth we can afford which then means that some of our services that we may lose and I wouldn’t be supportive of that and the gallery will only go ahead with philanthropic funding.

“I would just say that even if people never use the gallery, a lot of other people travel, tour and visit because of things like galleries and botanic gardens – so it’s a part of bringing people to our community,” she said.

Dr Rainsford added that bringing passenger rail to Hamilton was something she had advocated for years.

 “In the next term of Council, we’ve got a $150 million funding for the rail freight upgrade … If that’s finished in three years, we can start planning now what is lacking to return a passenger shuttle service between Portland, up through Heywood, Branxholme, Hamilton, Dunkeld, Glenthompson, Willaura and Ararat,” she said.

 “In the meantime, I’ll be lobbying that we get a shuttle bus service from Hamilton going up to Ararat to meet the Ararat trains … we’re isolated here, it’s all about connectivity.”

Dr Rainsford said her reason for standing for Council again was, “The need to have that experience and common sense at the table when major generational decisions are being made that could make or break our local economy.

 “I turn up, I listen, I communicate, and I get back to people,” she said.

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