Cr Docker said the motion that calls on council staff to review its Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places and look for ways to support frontline homelessness services was always planned to be put forward as soon as possible after he was elected.

"100 per cent - in Wollongong, we're beyond the housing crisis," Cr Docker said.

"We're starting to slip into a homelessness crisis. For me, I think the strength of a community is best judged by how they support the most vulnerable. That's why I was bringing this to the floor of council the first chance I got."

"One of the heads of the local providers told me recently that it's much easier for them to turn one of their dwellings into an Airbnb than it is to turn it into crisis and emergency accommodation," Cr Docker said.

"This isn't about big developers providing affordable housing or anything like that. These are about the services which are at the very acute end of this crisis.

"So it's just how can we bring those services online as quickly as possible once those applications hit the council's desk?"

"We need to throw everything we have at that and that includes bringing local government into the mix," he said.

"We need to use our imagination. We need to throw everything at this problem. Otherwise it would be far more costly to deal with down the track."

Cr Docker said he was confident the motion would have the full support of the councillors in this new term.

"Every single one of the councillors which have been elected care about their community and know about this crisis and I'm confident that this will pass," he said.

"I'm asking for a briefing. There's no budgetary impacts, there's no money being spent at the moment.

"This is asking for a briefing and sending a clear signal to staff that this is my intention and that we need a stronger focus in this area."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 24 October 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.

Greens candidate for lord mayor and Ward 1 at the Wollongong local government elections in September Jess Whittaker says a Council appointed food coordinator would be the point of contact to help residents start a crop swap and establish a community garden.

“Remember that time when you had plenty of neighbours swapping their extra lemons, tomatoes, basil, parsley, or even sharing a few eggs,” Ms Whittaker said.

“People are finding it harder to buy good quality produce. They’re frustrated by the two large supermarket chains who have a stranglehold on our weekly shop. On top of that, growing quality produce is being affected by climate change. And I’m also finding that people are looking for small events like a crop swap or a community garden so they have more opportunities for connections in their local community.”

“Everywhere I go, while talking to the community, access to affordable, local food keeps coming up as an issue,” she said.

Ms Whittaker said one example of the power of local food projects is the Woonona Community Garden.

“In just over three years, Woonona Community Garden has built a thriving community garden where local residents from diverse backgrounds and gardening abilities work together to grow food, share the harvest, and build new friendships,” she said.

“The Greens will recharge the local food economy with our plan to fund a dedicated position on Council to act as a mediator for local food production and swaps. This role will be the point of contact for people wanting to start a community garden, a crop swap or other event based on local food production. It will also assist existing community gardens to build membership and look for new funding opportunities.

“We don’t want a situation where people are turned off starting a project because getting through Council’s red tape and bureaucracy is too hard. Greens councillors will be more supportive of people wanting to get involved in community building food projects.

“As a city, we should be actively looking at land that may be available for small-scale local food production. While talking with people another idea has been looking at developing resources that could help small urban farms on private land. We are seeing a few pop up. However these enterprises generally don’t receive support or encouragement from any level of government.

“A Council appointed local food coordinator could be the point of contact on council to help people wanting to start a crop swap to find a spot to host it, providing information on weeds that probably shouldn’t be swapped, access to tables and assistance with promoting the events. It’s important that the community leads when it comes to local food, but there is a lot that the council can do to give them encouragement. Sometimes people just need help to build their confidence to host an event like this, but after the first few runs they can be self-sustaining. At the moment the local food scene doesn’t get much attention and our new Greens on council will be committed to changing that.”

Story by Mick Roberts in the Bulli & Clifton Times, 28 August 2024.

Greens candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said there currently wasn't a lot of support for the creation of community gardens.

"It's very hard to get through bureaucracy, especially in the initial phase when you're setting up," Ms Whittaker said.

"That's the hardest phase, to actually get these projects off the ground. So we want to support people who want to do local food projects in the Illawarra, and that's going to help us build our climate, resilience, cost of living relief, and building community.

"There's so many benefits that local food can bring to an area."

Ms Whittaker said the part-time role would cost around $60,000 a year, which she hoped could be funded from the next council budget.

"We already have a lot of staff doing amazing work in natural areas, such as restoring habitat. We'd hope that we can expand that to include local food," she said.

"There's so many things already happening that are really grassroots and being led by community. We just want to show that government can support that grassroots energy."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 26 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 echoed the praise, highlighting the assistance she got when she started on the council, offering thanks for "the immense patience that people in this place had in teaching me about how the planning system works, how to read the council finances, to answer every single question in detail".

"I really do thank you for your patience and some of those people that helped me in those early times have since moved on. But I am and I remain immensely grateful for the time that they took in explaining all of that stuff to me."

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

Cr Mithra Cox agreed that the city needed tourist drawcards, but they could be the same things that appealed to locals.

"It is things like good public transport, like pleasant streetscapes that are wide enough that you can walk with your friends that are quiet enough that you can have a conversation," she said.

"Streets that go somewhere where there's live music, where there's art, where there's interesting people where there's good food, where it feels like a place that people want to hang out.

"All of those things that we want for our city are the things that will draw people to it. If we create those things, then people will want to come here."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 13 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.

Greens candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker said there was much more room for nature in the city.

"There are new developments going up all around, IMB bank is a good example of it, that are clearly not fit for purpose and we need to champion much more ambitious goals in this space," he said.

Mr Docker said residents told him they were concerned about large developments across the city. "It's their concerns around how our city centre and suburbs are becoming more and more devoid of nature," he said.

"The evidence is abundantly clear that as cities become more urban and more dense there is a real risk of biodiversity loss and of increased flooding as the natural environment is removed for cement."

Now not in 20 years With Wollongong earmarked for increased density and urbanisation, Mr Docker says it is important we think about the future now.

"It's really important that we have a council which champions these initiatives now because otherwise in 20 years time, we're going to have come back and fix all the mistakes that we've made and that's going to be costly," he said.

"I really want to see it be a requirement of large developments and retrofit where we can because areas like out the front of IMB bank, they can't just be left to cement when there's so much room for nature."

Greens candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said urban greening's benefits could come from just using native grass in unused parks and reserves.

"This initiative could result in substantial savings for council by decreasing the need for constant mowing and maintenance.

"Throughout the year, and particularly during the summer, the council incurs hundreds of thousands of dollars in mowing and maintenance costs.

"These costs could be significantly reduced by reintroducing native grasses in targeted locations, which are more suited to our climate."

Story by Joel Ehsman in the Illawarra Mercury, 7 August 2024.

Story in The Illawarra Flame, 6 August 2024.