City of Ballarat, North, Jim Rinaldi

CITY OF BALLARAT

North Ward

Jim Rinaldi

Occupation:

Farming activities.

Resides:

Warrenheip.

How long have you lived in your ward?:

I was born here.

Community involvement:

Church, LAL LAL Landcare group, Ballarat sportsman club.

Associated with a political party or movement?:

I joined the National party in 2021 and I resigned three months later.

Preferencing:

Undecided.

Campaign budget? Receiving financial support?:

Minimal – not receiving any financial assistance.

Three most important issues in your ward?:

Rates – we as residents are experiencing a cost of living crisis and we need to slow and/or even stop the rate rises that are occurring. Ballarat Council Rates are quite high compared to council’s across the state, council needs to get back to basics and live within their means, whilst keeping important services.

Roads – local roads have significant maintenance and safety concerns, which results in vehicles getting damaged and possible accidents. We don’t just need to maintain the roads themselves, but we need to fix them correctly and not band aid the issues. This also includes guttering, curbs, channeling and gravel roads are regularly maintained, to ensure they are safe for vehicle use. If our vehicles are required to be roadworthy to drive on these roads, then our roads should be in a safe condition.

Infrastructure – Ballarat has seen and will continue to see enormous growth and development and with this, appropriate new and existing infrastructure needs to keep up with population growth. We have suburbs that have no, minimal or not up to scratch infrastructure fit for the thousands of residents in these suburbs, ranging from lack of sporting facilities, community hubs, safe footpaths and street lighting, regular public transport etc.

We need to ensure that Ballarat is also receiving funding across all levels of government into the region.