I was out on a road inspection with our director of infrastructure when I received a call from Mail-Times reporter Alex Darling regarding Terry Rawnsley's views about our communities.

Mr Rawnsley, the national leader of social and economic analysis at SGS Economics and Planning, said the Wimmera “should be treated like a palliative care situation”. He said policymakers should focus on growing larger towns, such as Horsham, as a way to service shrinking surrounding areas.

I was a little stunned by Mr Rawnsley’s views, and I thank Alex for printing my first comment.

I am very proud, passionate – and, you could possibly add, parochial – about all four towns in my shire, and views like this annoy me.

I've heard it all before 30 years ago at a conference at Longrenong College.

Needless to say, I left that meeting angry and determined not to let these views gain any traction.

I would be fairly certain that Mr Rawnsley doesn’t go to a GP on the Mornington Peninsula or Ballarat, nor would he send his children to school at Werribee or Bacchus Marsh. He needs to get out of his office in Exhibition Street, bring a few of his consultant fees from Spring Street out to the bush and try and grasp some understanding of our needs and our remoteness.

Having said all that, happy new year. We have had rain, and plenty of it – albeit two months too late. The bindi is flourishing, however as they say in the Mallee, any rain is a good rain.

Hopefully we will see plenty more of it through the year.

All the Christmas parties and new year celebrations are done and dusted for another year.

I look forward to this year being an exciting and productive year with great new projects in the pipeline right across the Wimmera/Southern Mallee region.

Cr Ron Ismay is mayor of Hindmarsh Shire Council. 

The Mayoral Matters column usually appears in the Wednesday edition of the Wimmera Mail-Times.

The column is an joint initiative between the Wimmera Mail-Times and the region’s five councils.