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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-01 Daily Xml
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Chief Scientist

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (14:27): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier please update the house on the appointment of South Australia's sixth Chief Scientist?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:27): I am very pleased to share with the chamber some details of Professor Craig Simmons who was appointed as the Chief Scientist for South Australia several weeks ago. South Australian-born, bred and educated, he has made a remarkable contribution to science over his career, which is of course still continuing. He is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Newcastle, but is prepared to spend time in a part-time role here in South Australia as our Chief Scientist, returning home, bringing back the intellectual gifts that he has.

Although he is now the Pro Vice-Chancellor, as I said, at the University of Newcastle, he was an Executive Director at the Australian Research Council, and also the Foundational Director of the Australian Research Council's National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training. His expertise is largely in the area of groundwater and earth sciences, something that I think will make a significant contribution to many of the policy considerations facing the future of the South Australian economy.

He is seen as a global leader in earth sciences, and he was originally—before leaving South Australia—the Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor and inaugural Schultz Chair in the Environment at Flinders University. He was educated at both Flinders University and the University of Adelaide, marking two of three of the universities as his own, and he has a PhD in hydrology, which has also seen him work overseas as well as interstate and in South Australia.

He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and also of the American Geophysical Union, and he received the President's Award of the International Association of Hydrogeologists in 2022. He was, in 2015, the South Australian Scientist of the Year. He did, at that time, spend some time working with The Advertiser also as their scientist opinion writer and therefore contributed to an understanding of scientific issues for the wider public.

He has chaired and been involved in a number of significant reports, advising governments and global organisations, including the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee, which was established by the Australian government, and he was one of the lead authors in the United Nations World Water Development Report—Groundwater: Making the invisible visible, and a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report.

He will be serving for a three-year term in a part-time capacity and he will help lead discussions about the application of science and decision-making, advising on the further development of the research ecosystem and, of course, coordinating specific scientific advice to government both within his field of expertise and drawing on the expertise of other scientists across the board.

As well as representing South Australia in the regular Forum of Australian Chief Scientists meetings, he will begin his term by providing expert advice on the Museum review and I think will make a very significant contribution to that. We are well aware of the importance of an evidence base in policymaking. It is even more crucial in this time of social media and misinformation that evidence, science and truth leads policy, and to have such a distinguished scientist coming home to be the South Australian Chief Scientist is a matter I think of great pride for all of us.

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