2015-10-12
Robert Simms has been sworn in this morning as the Australian Greens' new Senator for South Australia, replacing Penny Wright who stood down for personal reasons earlier this year. Senator Simms will make his first speech to the Senate at 5pm on Tuesday 13 October.
"It's a great privilege to be able to represent my state of South Australia and carry on the good work that Penny Wright did as Senator," said Senator Simms.
"I am excited to be part of such a strong team and look forward to working closely with my new Greens colleagues.
"One of the key issues I'd like to see action on here at the federal level is support for job creation in South Australia. There's a challenging period ahead for my state, we have record unemployment in SA, so there's a great opportunity to create new green jobs and utilise skills in the manufacturing industry to look at things like electric cars and green innovation.
"The previous prime minister Tony Abbott didn't take a very collaborative approach to job creation in South Australia and I do hope that Malcolm Turnbull will take the opportunity to turn over a new leaf," Senator Simms said.
Greens Leader Richard Di Natale welcomed Senator Simms at the Senate doors this morning, saying:
"While it was really sad to have say goodbye to Penny Wright, I'm thrilled to see Robert Simms sworn into the Senate today.
"Rob is going to be a terrific addition to our Senate team. He has experience at the local government level in Adelaide, in student politics, as a casual academic, and he's worked in this building before for various Senators.
"He's going to make an excellent representative for the people of South Australia, and a great spokesperson on higher education and LGBTIQ issues.
"Rob adds a lot of skill and experience to our team. He's young and dynamic, and I'm really looking forward to working with him."
Fellow Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said:
"I'm thrilled to be working with Rob to put South Australian issues front and centre in the Federal Parliament.
"With his energy, commitment, passion and drive he will be an invaluable asset to the Green team and to South Australia more generally."