He served as a Labor Party Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1991 until his death in 1994, representing the electoral district of Parramatta.

[1] After finishing school he worked as a Process Worker for Alcan in Granville and as a Steelworks Tradesman's Assistant for BHP in Wollongong.

At the age of 27 he was the youngest person ever elected to the New South Wales Parliament, and his difficult-to-pronounce surname soon saw him dubbed "Zorro" by fellow MPs.

In July 1993, Ziolkowski advised the Leader of the Opposition, Bob Carr, that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, affecting the esophagus[2] and by September 1993 was forced by illness to stop attending parliament.

Ziolkowski's death resulted in a by-election on held on 27 August 1994, which his wife, Gabrielle Harrison, went on to win.