Cathy Rainsford

Cathy Rainsford is the General Manager of the Content and Consumer Division at the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Ms Rainsford has held this role since March 2020 where she has responsibility for areas such as broadcasting, news and media, interactive gambling, unsolicited communications and telecommunications consumer protections. In this role, Ms Rainsford led the work to oversight the development of a voluntary Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation by digital platforms which was launched in February, as well as the follow up report to Government on the adequacy of the Code and the state of disinformation in Australia.

Immediately prior to joining the ACMA, Ms Rainsford led the Spectrum and Security Branch in the Department of Communications and the Arts. In that role, Ms Rainsford was Australia’s Head of Delegation to the 2019 treaty level World Radiocommunications Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Prior to that, Ms Rainsford held a number of senior leadership positions across that Department and the Federal Attorney-General’s Department in areas such as media and classification policy, native title and family law policy and programs. Ms Rainsford is a strong advocate for building diverse and inclusive workplaces and is a co-chair of the ACMA’s Culture and Values Network.

Ms Rainsford holds a Honours Degree in Law and a Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) from the University of Adelaide and has qualifications in project management.