Seeking re-election, Cr Nardia Turner says she ‘is not afraid to risk a slap on the hand’ for speaking up

Not afraid to speak up and “risk a slap on the hand”, councillor Nardia Turner is vying to keep her seat around the Kalgoorlie-Boulder council table at next month’s local government election. Elected in 2023 after a previous four-year stint in 2017, Cr Turner says she is not ready to let go of her seat as “the job is not done”. “I did think long and hard about running for council again, purely because — for me— council takes up a lot of time because I feel that I’m a dedicated councillor who makes my life work so that it works around council, instead of the other way around,” she said. “But I don’t think we’ve got the job done of where we want to be yet. “We wanted to be part of change, we wanted to be part of improving council, and I kind of feel like it’s like when you start cleaning your house and you’re a little bit through and you’ve got stuff everywhere, and then you stop. “We’ve got too many projects that we need to get finished and I want to be part of that.” Believing she had proven herself to be a present, thoughtful and dedicated councillor, Cr Turner said she hoped to secure another term. “I think the biggest thing I learnt from my first four-year term on council to this current term is that you can’t be afraid to speak up on the risk that you might get a slap on the hand from someone,” she said. “Not to break rules or be wilful, but if you feel strongly about something, you should speak up and I’m not afraid to speak up for the community.” She said her main priorities, if re-elected, would be to complete long-running projects and focus on new ways to attract and retain long-term residents to the community. Upgrading Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport, advocating for more housing, adjusting the Workforce Accommodation Policy and looking at introducing a “bed tax” for FIFO accommodation were some of her key focuses. “We always hear nostalgia about what things used to be like in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, but like everywhere else, the town has changed a lot,” she said. “Our retail landscape change has changed, our residential population has changed, so there’s a lot more challenges, and these days, a lot of people do have to work two jobs, so our community groups suffer as they don’t have as many people volunteering. “I want to make sure that as we change, we make ourselves still an attractive place to live like it was when I was growing up — I still want to make it an attractive place to live.”