This year has been a tumultuous year for everyone, to say the least. In my electorate of Kalgoorlie, it started with the bushfires that occurred around Christmas 2019. The Eyre Highway was closed for two weeks as our brave firefighters and volunteers were putting out fires, whilst hundreds of travellers were stranded at either side of the borders of Western Australia and South Australia. My office started a displaced traveller register for travellers from my electorate stranded in the Eastern States because of the road closures and also for travellers stranded in the electorate as well from the Eastern States. 

Before we knew it, we were inundated and it had grown into a register for travellers from all parts of WA stranded all over Australia and from all over Australia stranded in the Kalgoorlie electorate. We provided constant updates on what was happening, directed people to the correct information sites and relevant agencies that could help them and also provided other assistance such as holding a community barbeque at a local park for stranded travellers that members of the community were welcomed too. All the food were generously donated by our local residents and businesses, and the local Salvation Army branch found accommodation for some travellers who had been sleeping in their cars with young children. It was a great way to show that our community cared but also brought a very busy start to the year!

Before we knew it, COVID-19 hit and we struggled to find a new normal. We have been very lucky in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to only have minimal cases, and people in the community have generally been very conscientious of personal hygiene, social-distancing – basically doing the right thing. 

It was a challenge finding new ways to engage and communicate with my electorate and here are some of the ways our office managed to successfully connect with the community: 

• Easter egg giveaways: Between my staff and me, we visited over 300 homes and gave over 700 Easter Eggs to kids in the community who may be missing out from one of their favourite occasions. We dropped the eggs on the doorstep and notified people on Facebook which suburb we will be going to so that they won’t find a chocolate puddle at their front door!
• Anzac Day flag giveaways: We gave out hundreds of individual hand-held waving flags and dropped them off at letterboxes to encourage people to still celebrate Anzac Day at their doorstep
• Backyard camping competition: We held a competition to encourage people to still enjoy camping (in their backyards!) as the travel restrictions were still in place during the Long Easter weekend. People were very creative!
• I had a video made up titled “Greet Your Neighbour”. The idea was that every Sunday at 5pm, people could come out to their front yard and say hi to their neighbours. It was a way of checking-in with each other and even to meet someone new
• We have also been acknowledging our hard working essential workers such as health workers, police and emergency services, supermarket workers and others with free double passes to the local cinema to acknowledge their hard work. These have been very popular and have also supported the cinema getting back into business after being a business affected by COVID closures. 

At the end of August, we were lucky to have Liza Harvey and Neil Thomson (Candidate for Mining and Pastoral region) visit Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was a jam-packed day filled with visiting projects that the Goldfields community would greatly benefit from, and it was fantastic when Liza announced the Liberal WA’s first regional commitment in funding for free and ongoing cervical screening at the Goldfields Women’s Health Care Centre should we win next year’s election. 

Alongside my Parliamentary colleagues, we have been calling on the Government to provide an immediate COVID-19 assistance grant of up to $10,000 to our hardworking Western Australian small and family-run businesses. All governments across Australia has done it so why haven’t we? The government’s small business relief package is only for small businesses with a payroll between $1million and $4million, how many small businesses would meet that criteria? Certainly not the ones I know which are struggling!

Reducing the numbers of FIFO is still very much on my agenda. I understand that FIFO has its place in remote locations and where a skill set is hard to come by. However, mining operations within a close radius of a regional town should not be encouraging FIFO at all, but should focus on hiring a residential workforce. FIFO isn’t only Eastern States workers coming into WA to work, FIFO also includes having WA metropolitan workers flying into the regions for work and leaving once their roster is up. I commend companies such are BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto who are paving the way in changes to their recruitment policies to explicitly give preference to Western Australian candidates. We need other companies to follow suit and preference workers who are willing to relocate to where they work. We also need real incentives from the government for people to move to the regions to live and work in order to create more vibrant communities.

Championing our Local Governments of the Goldfields has also been high on the agenda. We have very progressive and forward-thinking councils here. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has a great Water Bank project and the Shire of Coolgardie has a ground-breaking Waste Disposal Facility project and when both projects are to go ahead (I am being extremely positive here!), it would create whole new industries in the Goldfields and create hundreds of jobs for future generations.

I have also stated in Parliament that the Eucla airstrip in my electorate (which lies next to the South Australian border) desperately needs to be upgraded. Twice I have had to cancel my flights to Eucla because of water on the runway. It doesn’t matter if it is a torrential downpour, just a mist and a light drizzle or any water on the runway is enough to render it inoperable because the runway is made of dirt. There are various user groups who utilise the airfield, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Western Australia Police Force, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, St John Ambulance and charter companies. I cannot stress enough how important this airstrip is for emergency services because if a major accident was to happen and the airstrip is not available, the only alternative is braving a nine-hour drive to the Kalgoorlie Health Campus.

My office is lucky to have two JPs provide their services at my office, each Wednesday and Friday. Due to COVID-19, the JP services at the Kalgoorlie Courthouse have stopped so this is a great way to continue to provide services to the community. Michael Telford has been a JP for a great number of years and is very much valued for his services at the Magistrates Court and at the Prisons. Allison
Golsby is a new JP and very enthusiastic on her role.

Being the member for an electorate such as Kalgoorlie based primarily in a mining region, I am very proud that my region has contributed so strongly to keeping the state and country running economically. The region is buzzing, resource prices are high and businesses are telling me they have never been busier. The local housing market both in rentals and sales is also experiencing a boom with people moving here to take up the many job opportunities. There are plenty more jobs we need to fill as well and that seems to be one of the biggest challenges businesses here are facing at the moment. I do have to say that in times of adversity once again the electorate of Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields have shown its importance to WA and. As the local member. the Goldfields is one of the best places to live and represent.

As the year is ending, I strongly believe what I gained from this year is learning how to build up resilience, being a better communicator and have more empathy. I choose to focus on the positives that COVID-19 has brought rather than the negatives, and I hope that next year will be an even better year for us all. In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy.

Kyran