Kim O’Keeffe is used to being the face of Shepparton.
During the city’s coronavirus outbreak and snap lockdown in August 2021, with 20,000 people in isolation, she was fronting the national media each morning in her role as City of Greater Shepparton Mayor as well as working behind the scenes.
Now, she’s hoping to be the district’s face in Victorian Parliament come November 26.
During that crisis, she regularly received calls from community members seeking help and now, during the floods which threw her six-week election campaign in the air, Ms O’Keeffe said she’s had the same thing.
“I think the community loved me being on the ground amongst them,’’ she said.
“It’s where I’m most comfortable.
“I’m in a very similar space (compared to being mayor) in sense of being out amongst the community.”
She said some people who hadn’t been impacted at all by the floods were fully engaged in the election, but for some it was the last thing they were thinking about.
What she was hearing on the ground most was a desire for change.
“I think my history has always been about making our region a better place to live in and get the opportunities that we deserve,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
Ms O’Keeffe has been in Shepparton since she was four and said the Nationals were a natural fit for her.
She said it was time for a change after three terms of a Labor government.
“Many people don’t think Daniel Andrews is the right person to lead,’’ she said.
“I certainly don’t.”
She said the past parliamentary term, which largely overlapped with her four years as mayor, Shepparton had achieved “some good things”.
“I think the pandemic has been really challenging ... and I think across the board, we know we’ve achieved some good things but I think there are definitely brighter days ahead,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“We’ve all seen some great investment in our region, but we still have got a hospital that’s not completed and the bypass which we’ve just announced funding for the first time at a state level.”
There is every chance that if Ms O’Keeffe is elected it will be into opposition, with polls showing Labor ahead in the two-party preferred polling, but she said while she wanted to serve in government, being elected in opposition didn’t faze her.
During her time on Greater Shepparton City Council, she worked with all levels of government to help prepare projects both in Shepparton and across the region, and said that expertise held her in good stead.
She said that was the thing which stood her apart from other candidates.
“I’ve worked very closely in local government with both state and federal and I know how it works,” she said.
“I think for me, regardless of whether we’re in opposition or not, we do live in one country or one state in one city in one region.
“Jeanette Powell was in opposition and she did some great stuff for our region.”
During the May federal election campaign, now-Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell ran ads which were targeted at independent candidate Rob Priestly which many people considered negative attack ads.
Ms O’Keeffe said she was aimed at running a positive campaign, but said negative politics went both way, saying Mr Priestly’s campaign was negative and nasty by saying former member Damian Drum hadn’t delivered.
“There was a lot of stuff and even now, Suzanna (Sheed) has said the Nats have done nothing for our region, which to me, that’s dirty politics,” she said.
Ms O’Keeffe said the hospital wait list was a drain state-wide and in Shepparton, and people suffering mental health crises needed more immediate support.
Because of that, completing the Shepparton hospital was top of her agenda.
Fixing workforce issues was also a key issue, along with alleviating cost of living pressures for families and households and fixing roads.
Workforce and land shortages were also things she believed needed to be lessened.
“We’ve got the lowest unemployment rates since the 1970s,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“And yet we’ve got all these shortages within the workplace and there’s many reasons to do with that, and we need to talk to industry to fix it.
“We’ve said we’ll unlock 50,000 lots in regional Victoria, put no stamp duty for 12 months, and will be working with local government for the fly-in squads to help give more support.”
Ms O’Keeffe also supported more choice for secondary education in Shepparton and said even during her time as mayor she was concerned about a lack of choice.
“I think the school needs to be supported so let’s supported, but the lack of choice means the kids that aren’t fitting in there, we need to make sure that’s resolved,” she said.
“In the early days, the Greater Shepparton Secondary College was basically presented to council this is what’s happening and where should it go?
“And they didn’t listen to where we thought would be the best anyway.
“That’s why you have to do a proper consultation process.”