I’m Malika, your Greens candidate for Wollongong, in the heart of the Illawarra.
Wollongong is where I’ve spent most of my life. Through speaking, teaching and performing I have connected with the community throughout Wollongong’s suburbs and villages.
I went to the University of Wollongong, had my kids here and taught other kids their first songs. I’ve emceed and performed at local events and been privileged to help families celebrate their loved ones’ lives as a funeral celebrant.
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Comedian Billy Connolly once said, “The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one.” He was spot on.
Aspiring to be a politician is not my passion.
Wollongong is.
This love of my adopted home is what pulls me towards this grassroots movement, to be a part of something focused on delivering for Wollongong communities.
Away from my creative side, I’ve been a fierce advocate against family and domestic violence. In 2010 I set a legal precedent in NSW. This fight taught me how difficult and poorly resourced our systems are for some of our society’s most vulnerable.
I’ve worked alongside the Illawarra Women’s Centre, the Trauma Recovery Centre and the NCACSA Lived Experience College to push for systems that listen to people instead of working around them. Being named Wollongong’s Citizen of the Year in 2025 was recognition that this work matters to our city.
I’m a hardworking single mum and I know money is tight right now. The Greens platform has the cost of living crisis at its core. We will deliver easy access to free, world-class health services, fully-resourced public education and an efficient public transport system that is free and frequent.
The Greens will address the underfunding of family and domestic violence services and prevention, including properly resourced mental health and trauma care and housing policy that treats a safe home as the foundation it is - not as a luxury.
For too long, New South Wales governments, both red and blue, have been talking with the big end of town rather than genuinely listening to our communities and responding to people’s needs. This needs to change. Good government can deliver sustainable development, necessary action on the climate crisis and protection of our coastlines, biodiversity and water catchments.
Wollongong has given me an extraordinary community - one built through decades of shows, classrooms, funerals and hard conversations. I’m running because the same communities deserve a voice in Macquarie Street that actually listens, understands and knows what it takes to bring positive change to the Gong.
