“I've never met a politician who is as connected to her community as Cath!” said the Greens’ Jess Whittaker. “She's the reason I got involved in politics because she made it accessible to a regular person who wants to see positive change. Cath is a gem!”

Jess also paid tribute to outgoing Ward 1 Greens councillor Mithra Cox, “a passionate advocate for climate action and community”.

“She’s a natural leader and a fantastic public speaker. She’s incredibly kind and has been so generous in helping the next bunch of council candidates find their way.”

The man who has led Wollongong for the past 13 years, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery AM, was Jess’s final choice. “Gordon led Wollongong Council out of some very dark times when restoring integrity and trust was desperately needed. He's championed a collaborative approach to decision making and remained connected to the community and in touch with local issues throughout his time as mayor.”

... And finally, Andrew [Anthony] picked outgoing Ward 2 Greens Councillor Cath Blakey, “who I deeply admired for her commitment to environmental protection and social justice issues”.

“The number one concern for people is affordability of housing, food, power bills and transport,” said the Greens' Jess Whittaker. “Every dollar counts for many families right now.”

Story Genevieve Swart in The Illawarra Flame, 12 September 2024.

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.

Wollongong Greens councillor Cath Blakey said the EPA needed to better monitor mining operations to protect the drinking water catchment. "The community wants to see the Illawarra escarpment and our drinking water catchment protected, and currently the EPA regulation is failing to do that," Cr Blakey said.

"So often it has come down to residents and volunteers raising the alarm, document creek pollution and collect water samples and send them off for independent testing.

"Too often mines are being approved with conditions that are not enforced or adhered to.

"Despite numerous end-of-panel reports that document seam to surface cracking, far beyond the mine subsidence forecast during the initial proposal assessment, the government has failed to halt longwall mining that damages the drinking water catchment of five million people."

Deidre Stuart, a member of the Protect Our Water Catchment group and Greens Wollongong City Council candidate, said laws were not applied equally. "If I park my car in the wrong place at the wrong time I am likely to get a parking ticket and fined," she said.

"If I am an indigenous person in this country then I might well also end up in prison for failure to pay a parking fine, and then dead.

"But if I am a coal company with friends in high places and with lots of money in my pocket, then it seems I can get away with making a mess and polluting our atmosphere with unabated methane for 30-plus years, and face no consequences."

Story by Ben Langford in the Illawarra Mercury, 22 August 2024.

Outgoing Councillor Cath Blakey put the ambitious motion to this month’s council meeting.

“We have an obligation to suspend trade and investments that support Israeli illegal settlements,” she said.

“This is an opportunity to reflect the community’s concerns about what is happening in Gaza, and ensure ratepayers’ money is being spent responsibly.

“This council has a track record of standing up for peace, and this is something we can do to improve the transparency of our financial dealings.”

Cr Blakey said other local governments, such as Canterbury-Bankstown Council, had conducted similar reviews.

Cr Mithra Cox defended the motion. She said ensuring the council purchased from ethical suppliers was a way for the organisation to support peace.

“Making sure our suppliers don’t profit from war is something we can do easily and can create real change,” she said.

Story by Zoe Cartwright in Region Illawarra, 22 August 2024.

Cr Cox said she was proud of the many things the council had achieved, including doubling the footpath budget, building new cycleways and introducing FOGO.

"When I first was elected to council I had a three-year-old who was in preschool and our community was asking for a pedestrian crossing to get across the road from the preschool to the shops - and we still don't have it," she said.

"And you think if you can't get a pedestrian crossing when you're on the city council, how do you do it?"

"I do think local government would be stronger if it was professionalised, if these meetings were held in business hours," she said.

"If we had an office and time in our days to respond to constituents, to meet with constituents, that's what they expect us to do.

"But, for most people, what we are paid, it's a reality that you have to have another job.

"And what the community expects and what we're able to do, it's really difficult. You've got a choice between working evenings and weekends and burning yourself out or not meeting people's expectations and that's really tough."

Fellow Greens Cr Blakey noted the collegiate nature of the current council make-up.

"I've really felt I've been incredibly lucky that we've been able to find common ground and work together with that focus on the benefit for the community," she said.

"I recognise that being a city council is an incredibly under-resourced role with great community expectations, as there should be.

"I want to thank you all for the great learning experiences and the great collaborative work that I've been able to be part of over the last seven years.

"Those seven years that have included for me having a baby and for this council having a pandemic that disrupted how we do things. In some ways it led to some innovations and in other ways, it made it incredibly difficult."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 13 August 2024.

Wollongong Greens Councillor Cath Blakey is calling on the state government to invest in Koala crossing points, especially at Mallaty Creek which is the shortest crossing point between the Nepean and St. Georges River just near where this koala was hit.

“We need these crossings in place now, before any future road expansion or vegetation clearance occurs. The delay puts the current koala population at serious risk, and we need the koala crossings right now, otherwise there will be no koalas left to cross.”

Story by David Clark at Wave FM 95.6, 9 August 2024.

Meanwhile, Greens Cr Cath Blakey has tabled a motion for Monday's council meeting calling for support of the Warrawong Residents Forum.

"The Warrawong Residents Forum does a really essential service for people that are vulnerable by providing free meals and grocery packs and having services and advice," Cr Blakey said.

However, those new premises need a fit-out, which will cost $180,000. "To make the new premises suitable they require the fit-out with partitioned rooms for confidential services, shelving for food and seating for meals as well as basic amenities such as air-conditioning, hand washing and security systems," Cr Blakey's notice of motion said.

"Warrawong Residents Forum have local builders and trades at the ready who have generously offered their time and skills, the $180,000 is need for materials, compliance and major works."

Cr Blakey's motion does not request the council fund the works but rather recognise the work of the forum and support calls for the state government to provide funding for community and neighbourhood associations.

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 21 June 2024.

Approving development applications to expand homelessness services should be sped up to cater for their growing need, Greens candidates for Wollongong City Council said.

Ward 2 candidate Kit Docker, who is a volunteer at the Wollongong Homeless Hub, said recent figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed Wollongong city had seen a sharp increase in people accessing homelessness services in NSW.

"It's disappointing that in the midst of the housing and cost of living crises, frontline services are having to wait up several months or more for their development applications to be approved," Mr Docker said.

"Applications that are crucial to their ability to meet the growing demand for services. I am urging the council to treat this crisis with the urgency it deserves and prioritise DAs for those services on the frontline of this crisis."

Greens candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said a DA for the homeless hub has been "held up in council for months and months."

"If it's something that there's a need for the community, it's recognising that need maybe above other things that are in the list and addressing that by liaising with the homeless services working out what they need and how we need to make it happen so that they have those services available to the community," Ms Whittaker said.

"Just working in partnership with them instead of them being put into the same process as everyone else. They are just such an important service and they're providing so many facilities and food and services to people in our community who are doing it tougher than anyone else.

Last week, the city was rocked by the alleged murder of homeless man Raymond McCormack at the Wollongong train station car park. Ms Whittaker said the Greens call to streamline applications from homelessness services wasn't prompted by that case. "We've been talking about this for a while," she said. "Kit volunteers with the homeless hub and has a really good relationship with them and has been talking to them about this for some time. "It wasn't because of Ray's unfortunate death that we came up with this policy. "We just thought that we had it ready to go and it's a really great time to talk about the need in the community and how desperate the need for services for people who are sleeping rough."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 19 May 2024.

https://www.facebook.com/WINNewsIllawarra/videos/308580948862422

Greens Councillor Cath Blakey:

"We've been dismayed that the Blast Furnace reline is going ahead. That's a billion dollar investment that I'm sure will become a stranded asset. It locks in pollution for decades to come."

On pilot location: "I'd like to think it should be Wollongong, because we've got existing workforces and existing infrastructure."

Story by Eva Baxter, WIN News, 12 February 2024.

Wollongong Greens councillor Cath Blakey said there was a "big risk" that the community would have to pay for the eventual remediation of Russell Vale mine.

Story by Connor Pearce in the Illawarra Mercury, 9 February 2024.