Meet Greens candidate for mayor Jess Whittaker

Hi! I’m Jess and I was born and grew up in Bulli & I now live in a great little village, Port Kembla, with my husband and two wonderful daughters. I work as a paramedic in the Illawarra and volunteer as a dunecare coordinator at Port Kembla Beach and as the Vice President of the Port Kembla Chamber of Commerce. Besides bike riding, surfing, bushcare, and live music [you’ve got to love the talented musicians and performers we have in the city] I spend most of my time with my family & friends. As a working mum, you might understand how hectic life can get.

Why are you the best person to be Wollongong’s next Lord Mayor?

Our city is, simply, wonderful with beautiful beaches, majestic escarpment and strong communities. If I’m elected Lord Mayor I would bring fresh green ideas and a bold vision for a welcoming, fun city with interesting and exciting things to do and see, a city that looks after its community and its environment, and is easy to get around. I also want to see Wollongong refresh its once thriving nightlife. Wollongong can also become a region that embraces new industries in the renewable energy industry and the jobs that will come as we make the transition to a Net Zero nation.

What would be your top priorities if elected to the city’s top job?

As a new Lord Mayor I’d work to:

• Build footpaths, pedestrian crossings and cycleways

• Revitalize our nightlife by creating a dedicated position for Night Time Mayor.

• Provide secure bike parking and push for Opal-activated bike sheds.

• Encourage urban farming and community gardens to increase our local food security and build communities that say hi to their neighbours. 

• Support new housing developments with affordable housing

• Push the State government to give us more trains, more buses on the weekend and broaden free public transport options like the Gong Shuttle.

• Invest in skateparks and spaces for young people.

• Open our Libraries and Art Gallery all weekend.

If you could deliver one key project in your first term, what would it be?

I’d like to continue the work of our previous two Greens councillors and see the budget for walking and cycling in the city increased again by funding new footpaths, shared pathways, pedestrian crossings and cycleways. We need to increase the pace of roll out of the safe routes to school program so our kids can walk and cycle safely and cross roads at well designed pedestrian crossings. There are so many benefits from improving participation in walking and cycling, and by helping people with low mobility move about easily in our city. 

Why do you want the job?

I just love Wollongong. It’s a fantastic city and we are lucky to call it our home. Wollongong is at a crossroads and we need people with fresh ideas and new energy so we can make our city an easy place to get around with lots of fun and interesting things to do. I think we can do more to look after our community and the environment and we also need to build enough affordable housing so our kids can live and work here in the future.

I want to be Mayor so we can achieve these things together in the next term of council.

Story by Genevieve Swart in The Illawarra Flame, 3 August 2024.

More weekend soccer games have been cancelled than played this season, said Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox, who has called for the 2024 winter sporting season to be extended.

Councillor Cox, herself a keen soccer player, will move at Monday's meeting of Wollongong City Council that the season be extended, and that the city develop a longer-term climate adaptation plan which would include better drainage and shade at council grounds.

"This is the second season in three years to have severely restricted community sports through ongoing wet weather," Cr Cox said.

"Many teams have played less than five games since April, with more games being cancelled than have been played," she said.

"This is incredibly frustrating, especially for the hundreds of new football players who have registered off the back of the Matildas' success at the World Cup.

"To keep those players engaged, we need a way to ensure they can actually play."

Cr Cox said alternative venues, including schools, could be explored for use on weekends.

"While some solutions will need time and money and planning, there are some quick fixes that could be employed to extend the season this year.

"With the simple addition of line markings and temporary goals, some unused fields could be freed up to enable the season to overlap with the cricket season, or we could work with schools to access some of their grounds."

Greens candidate for Wollongong Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said solutions would take time to they should be planned now.

"We are already seeing climate impacts significantly impacting community sport, and we know that these impacts are only forecast to get worse," she said.

"It's important to start planning now so that our community members of all ages can continue to play sport in the summer or winter seasons. Facilities like all weather multi-use sports venues are big and expensive and take many years to fund, so the work needs to start now if we are to have these sportsgrounds in the future."

Story by Ben Langford in the Illawarra Mercury, 5 July 2024.

Greens council candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker called it "a win for
safety."

"Me personally, I think when it comes to crossing roads, we should
be protecting the most vulnerable," Mr Docker said.

"And there's been way too many close calls along here and, and even
one injury is far too much."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 20 June 2024.

Greens candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker and candidate for Lord Mayor and Ward 1 Jess Whittaker joined local residents in Figtree to celebrate a new priority pedestrian crossing at Uralba street Figtree.

Wollongong City Council Greens candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker is calling for a new tax on profits from fossil fuel companies to help local governments recover from increasing natural disasters.

Every third Saturday, from 10-10:45am, locals gather on the lawns of Port Kembla Community Centre to swap homegrown produce, plants, preserves, recipes and ideas.

“It enables people to acquire a diversity of fresh produce, grown locally without the need for money or shopping at supermarkets,” said Port Kembla crop swap co-facilitator Jess Whittaker.

“We share ideas and stories about our produce before we start, so people know where things have been lovingly grown or prepared and by who.”

“The crop swap is exciting because it’s radical. It cuts out supermarkets by motivating the community to produce their own food and then redistribute it amongst themselves without money,” Jess said.

“The community centre is owned by Wollongong City Council but operated by Our Community Project, who let us use the tables and lawn area,” Jess said.

“We all come together and make new connections and share ideas, there’s something really magic about that.”

For Jess – who is running as the Greens candidate for Ward 1 and Lord Mayor in September's local government elections  – a crop swap is just the start. She has more green ideas for Wollongong.  

“Like supporting people in affordable homes to more environment-friendly modes of transport. I’m really passionate about active transport because I believe bikes are the answer to so many of our modern problems, from poor health, pollution, mental health and solving traffic problems," Jess said.

“We waste far too much money on building new roads while ignoring other solutions, we need to make it safe and easy for people to move about our whole city which is going to take a really progressive council to make it happen!”

“We think crop swaps will grow as people are feeling the need to connect with the community and seeking viable options for diversifying their food supply outside of the supermarket duopoly,” Jess said.

Story by Oguzhan Dincsoy in The Illawarra Flame, 4 April 2024.

Greens call for 50 cent public transport fares throughout Australia

Posted by lachlan harris · March 19, 2025 9:30 AM

Greens candidate calls for end to all coal and gas mining

Posted by lachlan harris · March 12, 2025 6:00 PM

Jess Whittaker announced as candidate for Cunningham

Posted by lachlan harris · March 07, 2025 11:21 AM

The Greens candidates for the council elections in September will be  Mithra Cox, in Ward 1,  Cath Blakey in Ward 2 and Jamie Dixon in Ward 3.

"Our vision for Wollongong is a city where everyone feels welcome, whose people are recognised as global leaders in sustainability, with a lifestyle that is the envy of the world."