FORMER local school teacher Greg Hansford will stand as a candidate for the Freedom Party of Victoria in the Upper House, Eastern Victorian Region at the November state elections.
Mr Hansford previously stood as One Nation’s Gippsland candidate at the May Federal elections, gaining 9.46 per cent of first preference votes, the highest result achieved by that party in Victoria.
Mr Hansford has lived and worked in Gippsland for most of his life. He completed his Bachelor of Business at the GIAE (now Federation University) and a Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary) at Latrobe University. Apart from a five-year break later to operate his own tourism business, he taught in a variety of local schools for a total of 23-and-a-half years.
Mr Hansford retired four years ago and has since worked in various community organisations. He volunteered at a local food bank packing food hampers, assisted St Vincent de Paul Society clients, visited senior citizens, hosted a weekly community radio breakfast show, and helped in various capacities at the Walhalla tourist railway. He also rebuilt fences for the Bairnsdale Blaze Aid effort after the Gippsland fires. He has published a history book about Walhalla, played in a local covers band and looked after his grandchildren.
Mr Hansford said he had become increasingly concerned with the direction that Victoria was heading in.
“Gippsland under the Andrews government, is wasting away,” he said.
“Dan has directed more and more resources to the city because that’s where the votes are. Gippsland has lost 14 timber mills to date despite construction industry wood shortages,” he said.
“The Victorian Opposition have been ineffective in correcting Dan Andrews’s excesses and their recent shift to adopting net zero will further crush local mining, timber and agricultural jobs.”
Mr Hansford said a key in Victoria was use of ‘high-efficiency, low-emission’ power stations to produce cheap, reliable electricity.
“Gippsland has 500 years of brown coal reserves that will go to waste after the power station closures,” he said.
