Media Release - 27 October 2026
Wollongong City Councillor Kit Docker and Illawarra creative and community advocate Malika Reese are the Greens candidates for Keira and Wollongong respectively at the 2027 NSW election.
Since being elected to Wollongong City Council in 2024, Cr Docker has helped deliver greater Council support for frontline homelessness services, the establishment of a disability advisory body and new urban greening initiatives to improve local biodiversity.
Hollywood-born Ms Reese moved to Australia in the 1970s. A founding college member of the National Centre for Action Against Child Sexual Abuse, she works with Tender Community Funerals and the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre. Her advocacy for children and families led to her being named Wollongong’s Citizen of the Year 2025.
The candidates will launch their campaigns alongside Greens NSW Upper House MP and Health Spokesperson Dr Amanda Cohn, who for the past four years has highlighted the ailing health and mental health systems, particularly in the regional areas.
Cr Docker said, “Labor promised to fix the NSW health system, but they have failed to deliver. As Health Minister, the Member for Keira has been unable to address the crisis in his own electorate, let alone across the state.”
“After nearly four years of Labor, emergency wait times are still too long, there are still major bed shortages and there is a hardworking health workforce who feel like they have been taken for granted.”
Ms Reese said the state’s mental health system was in crisis, pointing to NSW Health documents obtained by Dr Cohn that indicated NSW’s mental health services are short by more than half a billion dollars.
“Nearly two in three Australians experienced abuse or neglect as children, and almost half of those survivors live with a mental disorder,” Ms Reese said.
“NSW Health told the Health Minister public mental health services are short by $600 million every year. Too many can’t afford the help they need, that’s why the Greens would make mental healthcare free.”
Greens MP Dr Amanda Cohn, Greens NSW Health Spokesperson said:
“People should be able to access the health care they need, not just the care they can afford. Patients, their families, and frontline health workers deserve better than a government who has fought against nurses, midwives and doctors in court while budgeting a billion dollars this year alone in tax exemptions for pokies operators. Undoing decades of damage to the public health system has to start with paying staff at least what they’d earn in other states and territories.
Kit and Malika’s actions speak louder than words. They have both fought tirelessly for the disability and mental health support their communities need.”
