Ward 3 Candidate calls for free entry to Dapto pool
Greens' candidate for Ward 3 Jess Whittaker is committed to making Dapto pool free to enter if elected to Wollongong City Council.
Wollongong Council Passes Four Significant Motions
Listen to the ABC Illawarra interview in which Mithra Cox discusses the four resolutions. They are about:
1. Offshore wind farming off the Illawarra coast
2. Investigation into the installation of community electricity storage
3. Climate change adaptation plan
4. National response to reach net zero emissions
'Green industrial revolution' to eclipse coal jobs, NSW Treasurer says
Wollongong Greens Councillor Mithra Cox welcomed the strategy but said it must be based on green hydrogen - produced using renewable energy.
"The green hydrogen industry is particularly important to Wollongong, as it means that we could decarbonise steel production - and it also means a wealth of new jobs and industries," Cr Cox said.
"Wollongong has always been [based] on coal mining, steel making and manufacturing. We want to remain an industrial city - but using the technologies of the 21st Century and ensuring that our future is sustainable."
Business Illawarra executive director Adam Zarth said Illawarra industry was already transforming its energy generation.
Expected global temperature rise to cause extremely alarming sea levels
At Monday night's council meeting councillors will discuss the climate change adaptation plan, which includes an expected temperature rise of 3-4 degrees - something Greens councillor Mithra Cox said was "extremely alarming"
Investigation launched after 10 Norfolk Pine Trees poisoned at Towradgi Park
"What has happened impacts on the whole community. It punishes everybody just because of the greedy actions of a few." said nearby resident and Greens Councillor Mithra Cox.
Cr Cox said the fines were significant for destruction on such a scale and if anyone has any information that leads to a prosecution, that would send out the message that such vandalism is not okay and will not be tolerated by the community.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery has vowed to find those responsible for poisoning at least 10 Norfolk Island Pine trees in Towradgi.
Read more in the Illawarra Mercury
Wollongong council can help schools get solar powered
"Wollongong schools should be set up with solar power - with the help of council, according to councillor Cath Blakey.
The Greens councillor has a notice of motion at Monday night's council meeting to call for participation in the Solar My School program."
Greens call for low-income housing at WIN Grand
The $400 million WIN Grand development should set aside 20 per cent of its apartments for affordable housing, according to a Greens candidate for Wollongong council.
Read moreUrgent call to action
Australia will endure more serious and more frequent fires, floods, and droughts within ten years if carbon emissions aren't dramatically cut.The Illawarra will be impacted by rising sea levels, but our region also has the opportunity to be part of the solution.
Safer roads: Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox moves for more pedestrian crossings
Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox has a motion before Council on Monday night, that will enable Council to more easily install pedestrian crossings.
"For too long, cars have been prioritised over kids and in fact over anyone who is trying to walk to school, the shops or around their neighbourhoods.
Cr Cox said Wollongong's lack of pedestrian crossings had always been attributed to the fact that the city could never meet the "warrants" set down by Transport for NSW - strict guidelines that mean the Council cannot install crossings where there are too few or too many cars or pedestrians.
"Developing our own guidelines would enable us to put pedestrian priority crossings in much needed areas like school walking catchments and village shopping precincts," she said.
Post lockdown boost for a vibrant Wollongong night-life
"While Wollongong nightlife has been steadily improving, we still have a long way to go to have a truly vibrant night-time economy. Many places along the foreshore are popular in the day but deserted in the evening due to lack of food options"
Read the article,
Greens call for improved Corrimal train service before coke works development proceeds
GREENS candidate for the Wollongong City Council elections in September, Bronwyn Batten has called for better train services for Corrimal before the coke works development proceeds.
“Even with the proposed reduction of dwellings from 750 down to 550 the size of the development cannot be justified merely because it is adjacent to Corrimal Railway Station,” Dr Batten said.
Reverse the TAFE cuts!
This Notice of Motion seeks to reassert councils commitment to TAFE through the economic development strategy, recognizing it as an essential training service.
It's really important that we have guaranteed funding for TAFE.
It's especially important in this time of COVID as TAFE is so strategically positioned to re-skill, re-train and re-deploy people.
Is the Tallawarra B power station ever going to be really sustainable?
Mithra Cox Greens Councillor and Mayoral candidate is concerned. Mithra speaks about this project on
Wollongong Council's stance on shark nets welcomed
Wollongong City councillors have thrown their support behind a call to replace shark nets with other measures that would mitigate the risk of bites without the deleterious impacts on marine wildlife.
Cr Cath Blakey moved a motion at Monday's meeting that the council make a submission to a review into the NSW shark management strategy, in which it would oppose the use of nets in favour of drone and helicopter surveillance, listening stations, personal shark deterrent devices, and SMART drumlines.
The motion was passed unanimously.
Read the article by Natalie Coxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 20 April 2021
Read moreGreens announce fresh faces for Wollongong City Council tilt
Greens NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi backed the team gunning for Wollongong City Council in the 2021 elections.
Public transport campaigner Bronwyn Batten and paramedic and environmental activist Jess Whittaker will join existing councillors Mithra Cox and Cath Blakey.
Ms Cox will lead the Greens team as Lord Mayoral candidate, as well as seeking re-election in Ward 1. Ms Blakey will again be the lead candidate in Ward 2. Priority candidates will also include Ms Whittaker as the lead candidate in Ward 3, and Dr Batten as the number 2 candidate in Ward 1.
Read the report by Zoe Cartwright in The Illawarra Mercury, 19 April 2021
Read moreCouncil Greens Launch
Watch the video from WIN News, 19 April 2021
Do we need shark netting?
Watch the video on 13 April 2021 on WIN News
Wollongong City councillor renews opposition to shark nets
Wollongong City councillor Cath Blakey will call on her fellow councillors to support a submission to NSW's shark management strategy review that will voice opposition to the use of shark nets as a risk mitigation measure.
The Department of Primary Industry figures on the shark nets, obtained by Cr Blakey, show 258 of the 447 animals caught in shark nets on Wollongong and Royal National Park beaches from 2012 to 2020 died - and 167 of these were threatened or protected species.
"They're having a terrible toll on wildlife," Cr Blakey said.
"Shark nets really give us a false sense of security," Cr Blakey said.
The five-year NSW Shark Management Strategy focused on trialling other technologies to minimise the risk of shark bites to beachgoers, including drones, SMART drumlines - which intercept sharks and allow researchers to tag them - and listening stations, which detect tagged sharks within 500 metres and send out an alert. Cr Blakey said options such as these were safer for both humans and wildlife.
Cr Blakey's proposed council submission voices support for drone and helicopter surveillance, listening stations, personal shark deterrent devices, and SMART drumlines, but opposes the use of nets.
Councillors will vote on Cr Blakey's motion on Monday, April 19.
Reported by Natalie Croxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 13 April 2021
Small fine for pollution by South32
Watch the video from WIN News, 8 April 2021
Council reverses 'fun police' decision on Thirroul basketball hoop
Last month the council wrote to the Craig and Sarah Rossignol to inform them that a fixed basketball stand opposite their Kilncar Crescent house was a footpath obstruction and had to be taken down immediately, or risk a $330 on-the-spot fine. After appeals from Keira MP Ryan Park and Greens Councillor Mithra Cox, the decision has been reversed and Thirroul families will not be penalised for the community basketball hoop.
Greens Councillor Mithra Cox said parents shouldn't be penalised for encouraging kids to play outdoors.
Read the report by Zoe Cartright in The Illawarra Mercury, 6 April 2021.
Read moreWollongong councillors share stories of harassment in wake of March 4 Justice rallies
Several Wollongong councillors spoke for the first time of their experiences of sexual harassment at Monday night's council meeting.
The catalyst was the call from Labor Councillor, Tania Brown, in the wake of Monday's March 4 Justice rallies, to write to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to express the council's support for the principles behind the movement.
Greens councillors Mithra Cox was among councillors who shared experiences of harrassment. The motion was passed unanimously.
Read the report by Glen Humphries in The Illawarra Mercury, 15 March 2021
Read moreWollongong verge gardens receive council funding
Twelve new verge gardens will be established across Wollongong, with the council providing vouchers worth a total of $3000 to get planting started. The people behind the selected projects have a variety of visions for their gardens.
Each project will receive a $250 voucher for Wollongong Botanic Garden's Greenplan Nursery under a Wollongong City Council pilot to build gardens on verges and improve neighbourhood connections.
Wollongong councillors unanimously endorsed the grants at this week's ordinary council meeting.
Greens Councillor Cath Blakey said that while it was a small amount of funding, the program got "great bang for its buck".
She said the project was a good way to activate the city's suburbs.
Read the article by Natalie Croxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 24 February 2021
Read moreWollongong council to investigate safety at Port Kembla's Hill 60 in wake of deaths
Wollongong City Council has supported the wearing of life jackets at Hill 60 but will not make them compulsory, as it looks at ways to avoid further tragedy at the popular rock fishing site.
A motion brought by Deputy Lord Mayor Tania Brown in response to the recent deaths of five people at the site was carried unanimously at the council's ordinary meeting this week.
Council staff will engage with the state government and relevant agencies about ways to improve safety, and a council delegation plans to meet with the relevant state ministers to discuss the issue
Councillors discussed the difficulty of promoting safety while allowing access and fishing. While locking people out of places could force them to more dangerous spots, Greens Councillor Cath Blakey said lock-outs needed to be explored as a possible option, with people rock fishing at night when they could not see.
Read the article by Natalie Croxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 23 February 2021
Read moreWollongong councillors blast draft Illawarra-Shoalhaven Regional Transport Plan
Several Wollongong councillors and the Lord Mayor have slammed the state government's draft transport plan for the region, saying it fails to address a number of issues facing the city.
Transport for NSW has released its draft Illawarra-Shoalhaven Regional Transport Plan, which sets out its strategy for the next 20 years.
At this week's Wollongong City Council meeting some councillors expressed disappointment with the contents of the plan.
Greens Councillor Mithra Cox was pleased to see the inclusion of the South West Illawarra Rail Link in the council's submission, but said Wollongong needed a transport system that reflected it was a city with a metro core, peak-hour public transport services, and late night options to support the late night economy and travel within Wollongong.
Greens Councillor Cath Blakey, who described the draft plan as "totally undercooked", also spoke of West Dapto and how the absence of public transport corridors would force the eventual 50,000 to 70,000 residents of the area onto the roads.
Read the article by Natalie Croxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 24 February 2021
Read moreWollongong councillors voice support for Port Kembla hydrogen industry
Wollongong City councillors have voiced their dismay that Port Kembla has missed out on an opportunity to develop hydrogen technologies.
Councillors were united in their support for a hydrogen industry in the area at Monday's ordinary meeting, where they unanimously endorsed a submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the development of such an industry in the state.
Greens Councillor Mithra Cox said the steelworks meant Wollongong had a strong argument to make for trialling hydrogen steel production.
"If we go out and make declarations, people come to us," she said.
Read the article by Natalie Croxon in The Illawarra Mercury, 23 February 2021
Read moreFrom steel city to bike city: Wollongong pins hopes on becoming world-class cycling destination
If Australians were asked what they most associated with Wollongong, most would probably nominate heavy industries such as coal and steel production. But now the city 90km south of Sydney has been recognised alongside diverse European destinations as it strives to make a new reputation as a centre for both professional and recreational cycling.
Following regions such as Bergen in Norway, Drenthe in the Netherlands and Yorkshire in the north of England, Wollongong has been named the first official Bike City in the southern hemisphere by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body of cycling. The nomination recognises promotion and investment in elite events, such as road races, as well as strategies to improve everyday cycling, such as commutinBut progress on promoting cycling for its citizens has often seemed an uphill battle.
But progress on promoting cycling for its citizens has often seemed an uphill battle.
Local Greens councillor Mithra Cox was elected in 2017, and remembers that the first plans to make Wollongong a bike-friendly city received lukewarm support.
“Treatment of bike safety, especially around schools – like speed limits, zebra crossings, and narrowing roads to make space for cycling tracks – were too difficult to get approval from the NSW government for,” she says.
Cox says she still feels “some trepidation at already being named a bike-friendly city”. When it comes to promoting a cycling culture, and prioritising safety for cyclists of all levels, she says, “there is still a long way to go”. She hopes road world championships will be the opportunity that pushes the council to do what needs to be done for the city to be “worthy” of the UCI title.
Read the article by Rafqa Touma in The Guardian (Australian edition), 14 February 2021
Read moreFate of $956m mine expansion plans sealed
Read the article by Jake McCallum and Madeline Crittenden, The Daily Telegraph, 5 February 2021.
Read moreBulli Bowling Club rezoning plan branded as 'arrogance' by councillor
Plans to rezone the Bulli Bowling Club site to allow a housing development have been rejected -- again --by Wollongong City Council.
The plan had previously been knocked back by the Wollongong Local Planning Panel twice, saying it did not fit with the character of the area.
Wollongong city councillors also unanimously voted not to allow the rezoning.
Greens Councillor Mithra Cox said there was a lot of angst in the community about inappropriate development, citing the area was a traffic pinch point and not as close to public transport as was claimed.
She felt the bowling club site would be a perfect place for soccer fields, of which she said there was a shortage in the city.
"It would be a great use of the facility," Cr Cox said. "Sure, it wouldn't make as much money as putting five-storey apartments but it's not our job to give windfall profits to people who have speculated and bought property zoned as private recreation and allow them to make a big profit off it building apartments that weren't previously allowed."
Read the article by Glenn Humphries in The Illawarra Mercury, 2 February 2021
Read moreReport into Dendrobium dam failure lacking: Greens
The Illawarra Greens have released an environmental report kept out of the public eye by miner South32, and say they remain concerned about the pollution of two Wollongong creeks despite findings that there were no serious ecological impacts from the August incident.
After heavy rains on the weekend of August 8, coal waste sludge from South32's Dendrobium mine at Kembla Heights flowed into Brandy and Water Creek. The creek turned black, with Figtree residents and Greens members raising the alarm.
Now, a 46-page environmental assessment, obtained by Greens member Jess Whittaker under freedom of information laws, shows the incident occurred when a dam failed at Kemira Colliery following 150mm of rain.
But Greens members have now raised concerns about the limitations of the report, which they say does not explain why the dam collapsed or what the longer term effects of the pollution could be.
"This Environmental Assessment Report still leaves many questions unanswered - like why the culvert collapsed, why analysis wasn't done for all heavy metals found in coal fines, and why the resident's reports of dead aquatic life were not verified," Wollongong Greens councillor Cath Blakey said. "The report also points out its limited scope because there was no monitoring done beforehand to compare their results to. That's why continuous monitoring should be standard of any tributaries down-stream from a coal mine."
Cr Blakey also said it was "problematic that it took a GIPA request to make the report public" and was worried that this type of pollution had happened "while South32 is trying to expand mining in our drinking catchment".
Cr Blakey said she thought there should be more rigorous environmental conditions, and continuous monitoring of the creeks downstream from the mine, to give a baseline if any future pollution events occurred.
Read the report by Kate McIlwain in The Illawarra Mercury, 9 January 2021
Read more'Radical departure': Wollongong council slams brakes on CBD planning overhaul
Wollongong's Labor and Liberal councillors have voted to "slam the brakes on" the city's most significant planning reforms since 2007 by a year or more, voicing concerns about banning new residential buildings in parts of the CBD.
In a rare departure from the council administration line, Labor veteran David Brown argued councillors should not yet vote to move forward with a massive overhaul of the city centre planning rules. Instead, he said the council should delay progressing changes to its development rules until it had more information on access and movement, the city-wide retail environment and affordable housing.
Studies on these topics are in the works, but council staff indicated this could push back any CBD planning changes - already projected to take months to move through the NSW Planning system - by another year.
The changes, which were based on years of studies including one adopted by the council in 2016, would have included changes to building heights, a ban on new residential development in a new "commercial spine" along Burelli Street, and incentives to attract more commercial developers.
Council staff said they were designed to move away from current policies which have created escarpment-blocking skyscrapers in the wrong places and rows of empty shop fronts.
Only the Greens and Independent councillors - including the Lord Mayor - voted against Cr Brown's bid to delay the changes.
Mithra Cox said she was surprised by Cr Brown's "radical departure" from previously adopted policies.
"This has been a really long process ... and my sense was that everybody was reasonably comfortable with the direction we were going," said Cr Cox. "This could have the effect of indefinitely delaying these changes. This is slamming the brakes on."
She highlighted problems with the CBD like "too much empty and unoccupied shop space in the CBD", which would have been addressed by the proposed reforms.
"One of the key changes in this is allowing residential to go right to the ground floor in some areas, without needing dead city retail space at the bottom of that," she said. "Very few people are going to say we need to expand the amount of retail in the Wollongong CBD, and that's what our planning controls force to happen."
Read the report from Kate McIlwain in The Illawarra Mercury, 8 December 2020
Read more