Cr Cox said she had noticed, when checking her emails or phone messages that there was "a wave of hatred" in among the genuine requests for help. A wave she said increased during COVID.

"I think the job itself takes its toll," Cr Cox said.

"It's not just the amount of time, but it's also the amount of responsibility and the amount it bleeds into your personal life that it takes.

"It's not really possible to be a private person and go to a festival or go to the pool or go to the shops anymore, and that really takes its toll after a little while."

Cr Cox acknowledged there was a risk in both Wollongong Greens councillors leaving at the same time that it may mean the party not holding onto those two spots. "Of course, that is a concern," Cr Cox said.

"Managing a transition is a challenge. I really hope that we've done it in the best possible way. To leave with grace, to leave willingly, to support the new candidates as they come in and have a public demonstration that we think these people are going to be great.

"So often, you see those transitions can be rocky, and people want to hang on to their position and don't want to go, and it's a challenge."

She added that it was inevitable that the party had to put forward new candidates. "It's difficult to bring in new people that people don't know, but you've got to do it too," Cr Cox said.

"You've got to have new blood. You've got to have new ideas. And I'm well aware that I was never elected because of me - I was elected because of the party."

There was also a segment of voters who will vote Greens because of the party, rather than the candidates, because "people know us, people are pretty clear what we stand for".

"I think we might well actually get a third, and I think we may even get a fourth," she said.

"Partly because there's more votes and there are so few candidates."

Cr Blakey said there was no intra-party fighting that led to all the Greens councillors stepping aside at the same time - it was simply a coincidence.

"The NSW Greens are a federation of local groups, so we each make our decisions independently," Cr Blakey said.

"Actually, the Illawarra Greens had our preselection back in October last year. So I made the decision then not re-contest this council election, before we knew what was happening with any other candidates."

Cr Blakey also acknowledged there was a "risk" involved in putting up new candidates - "it's up to the electors, it's up to the people voting to determine who the council's going to be" - but was confident with the Greens candidates running in Wollongong.

When it comes to new candidates without the same name recognition as the incumbents, Cr Blakey said she was in that situation when she first ran for council in 2017 - and was elected.

"When when I took over and became a city council candidate people expressed the same concern," she said.

"Mithra and I didn't have the same recognition that Jill Merrin and George Takacs had."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 9 September 2024.