UPDATED: Adelaide City Council ratepayers will fork out up to $100,000 on a by-election to fill the seat left vacant by former councillor and soon-to-be Upper House politician Robert Simms – the second such election prompted by the Greens member in six years.
Adelaide City councillor Robert Simms has once again resigned and forced a by-election at Town Hall – this time to fill retiring Greens MLC Mark Parnell’s state Upper House seat – after he previously quit the council in 2015 to replace Parnell’s wife in the Senate.
Long-term SA Greens MLC Mark Parnell has declined to quell growing speculation he will soon pull the pin on his political career, as successor and current Adelaide City councillor Robert Simms quits his day job to focus on the party’s state election campaign.
The South Australian Greens are hopeful of becoming the state’s “third political force” and holding the balance of power in the Upper House, after electing a young environmental campaigner as their number two Legislative Council candidate for next year’s state election.