Barbara Pocock

So thrilled to have Penny Wright's nomination for Greens Senate Preselection.

I am in awe of Penny's many contributions - as a Senator, as an active community member, and in all she has done for women, men and children in our state.

Her nomination says:

"I am very happy to support Barbara Pocock’s nomination as the next Greens Senator for South Australia. Barbara brings a fierce intellect and a broad and deep range of work and life skills. Her insistence that economics must have a just, humane and environmental focus and her consummate ability to campaign and communicate Greens values to a broad range of audiences would be huge assets for the Greens Senate team and, dare I say, Australia.

Barbara is a highly principled person and I know she would fulfil this role with energy and humanity. I believe we are lucky to have her."

Penny Wright, former Greens Senator for SA

So happy to have Rob Simm's nomination for Greens Senate Preselection. We worked hard together in the 2019 election and we'll do it again in the future. Rob has achieved so much - on Adelaide City Council, in the Senate, in our community. His nomination says:

"Barbara Pocock has spent her working life focussed on the labour market and inequality. As we confront the worst economic crisis in generations, Barbara's policy expertise will be an enormous asset to our party and our movement.

Barbara is a candidate who is able to grow the Green vote and connect with new constituencies, securing record support for the Greens in Adelaide in 2019. She has the skills and experience as a campaigner and policy leader that we need to win our vital senate seat. I am proud to support her nomination."

Robert Simms, former Senator for South Australia

    Pam Simmons' kind words of support mean a lot to me, given her extraordinary contribution to our state through decades of work on behalf of community services and her advocacy for our children and young people.

    "Three words that immediately come to mind about Barbara Pocock are integrity, courage and action. Thank goodness I am not limited to three because Barbara is so much more. She is a great listener, curious about others’ views and loves to collaborate on solutions. She is focused on effective action that comes from sound research and motivated by her strongly-held values of fairness and social justice. Equally important to her more public qualities is her high capacity for self-reflection, commitment to her family and community, and her love of life. I know Barbara would stand up for South Australian women, men and children, and for our planet, and I have no doubt that she would make a wonderful contribution in the senate."

    Pam Simmons

    SA Guardian for Children and Young People, 2004-2015

    Executive Director, South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS) 1998-2004

    Janet Giles has been a leader in the union movement for decades. We have shared motherhood and activism through it all. This pic is from just one shared chapter - my kids in their Save Croydon School gear. So thrilled to have Janet's endorsement for a possible new Senate chapter:

    "I have known Barbara Pocock for many years as we have worked alongside each other in the union movement, grew up our kids up together and been part of many campaigns and actions. Barb's clear analysis and action about women in the workforce, casual work, work and family and her skills as a progressive economist have been incredibly important for progressive activists in the trade union movement. She was involved in important industrial cases e.g. job insecurity and long hours of work, and her work was crucial to the achievement of paid parental leave in this country. Her experience will make her a great senator. She has presented at numerous senate inquiries about the industrial relations system, and during the dark years of John Howard's Workchoices, she was one of the brave academic voices in our nation who spoke up in the face of threats to funding and reputation.

    Our kids grew up together, going to the same community childcare and public schools. When our school in Croydon was announced for closure, Barb was part of a group of local parents who ran a grass-roots, community campaign that severely damaged the credibility of the State Liberal Government. I know her as a highly principled and effective advocate for working people, women and the environment who understands the fundamental link between research, analysis, legslation and community action. She is a warm and loving woman with strong public credibility that will attract supporters from a diverse range of people in the community."


    Janet Giles
    Australian Education Union President ( SA Branch) 1996 - 2000
    Secretary of SA Unions 2003- 2013
    Currently Team Leader, Organising, Public Service Association of SA.

    Karina Lester Yankunytjatjara Nation

    Karina Lester is one of my heroes. So proud to have her endorsement. We Mothers for a Sustainable South Australia (MOSSA) have been proud to stand with Karina and all First Nations people who have spoken – and continue to speak - for country and against damaging proposals to dump nuclear waste in our beautiful state - without proper process.

    "Barbara Pocock is a woman of fairness and equality who has earned great respect and admiration amongst the First Nations groups of South Australia. I am proud to have known Barbara for the last 5 years as we worked closely together during the Royal Commission nuclear fuel cycle in 2016-2017, both professionally and tirelessly during a very challenging and time-consuming process.

    She showed great willingness to work closely with First Nations groups but most importantly to hear the voices of First Nations, share their stories. Her voice and her work with the Mothers for a Sustainable SA (MOSSA) was as important in the Royal Commission as First Nations voices were & together in solidarity made South Australians voices even stronger.

    This is even more important as we South Australians face again the pressure by the Federal Government for a Radioactive Waste Dump located at Kimba Community. This Radioactive Waste Dump ignores the voices of Traditional Owners & takes away their rights. Barbara Pocock will talk strong and talk up for our Climate and our Environment & about justice, treaty & truth, about these issues that are close to every First Nations group here in South Australia and across Australia. Barbara Pocock has my personal endorsement".

    Our successful campaign in the seat of Adelaide in 2019 - which took our vote from 10.4% to 15.7% - was built on the efforts of so many, including many young Greens like Jayden Squire - thanks so much for your words Jayden:

    "I am proud to be supporting Barbara Pocock for the South Australian Greens senate preselection ballot, she is a fighter and I think that is what we really need in politics.

    As a young person, I can respect her life’s work of fighting for economic change for working people and acknowledge her work on many boards furthering her cause to create economic and environmental change.”

    Dr Richard Denniss, Chief Economist, The Australia Institute

    Richard Denniss makes sense of economics on all the questions that matter in our country right now. So thrilled to have his words of support:

    "I heard of Barbara Pocock a decade before I finally met her. Having studied economics at the University of Newcastle when BHP’s closure and the ‘recession we had to have’ were crushing the Hunter Valley I spent years learning about the role of the Commonwealth’s Community Employment Program. The CEP drew in local councils, NGOs and Hunter businesses to create jobs, it was led by Barbara, and it worked. 10 years later I was in Canberra working with Barbara on paid maternity leave policy. And since then I’ve fought the good fight by her side on everything from opposing a nuclear waste dump for SA and unwinding the damage privatisation did to our childcare and aged care sector to fighting for more secure work and less unpaid overtime for Australia’s stressed out workers.At every turn, Barbara has argued the facts with integrity and courage. She is funny, smart and principled. We need people like Barbara in our parliament who can demystify economics, bringing evidence to bear on our pressing economic and environmental problems. I know from decades of personal experience that Barbara would enrich the Senate - and do the Greens proud.Her energy, creativity, experience, warmth and humanity are just what the Commonwealth parliament needs right now.”

    (picture: Richard and I just after presenting to the Citizens' Jury on what was wrong - so much! - with the economics of the proposal to import the world's most toxic high level nuclear waste, and bury it in SA).

    David Noonan

    Independent Environment Campaigner; A ‘Voice’ of the No Nuclear Dump Alliance; Campaigner against Uranium mining in Australia; ACF Anti-nuclear Campaigner (1996-2011)

    David Noonan's persistent, powerful and forensic work for our environment has made a real difference in our world. I'm delighted to have his support:

    "Barbara Pocock is probably best known for her research and advocacy on work and inequality. She has also worked consistently against making our state a dump for the world’s high-level nuclear waste and, more recently, for intermediate and low level waste at Kimba. Barbara was asked by the High Level Nuclear Waste Citizen’s Jury to present on the economics of the proposed dump and her presentation criticising the assumptions underpinning the idea and its unreliable 'profit' forecasts was persuasive, alongside the words of Traditional Owners. Barbara makes the case that our economy and community needs to increase employment through our clean, green food production, education, renewable energy and the visitor economy, not projects like nuclear waste disposal – which create few jobs and high risks. Through Mothers for a Sustainable South Australia, Barbara has facilitated community understanding and discussion about environmental issues like nuclear waste, making complex ideas understandable, and working across the political spectrum for the right decisions. She applies the facts with integrity and works well with others. These are the skills we need in the Senate and I hope Barbara wins preselection so that the Greens can increase their voice for both planet and people in our next parliament."

    Gabrielle Bond is an Organiser with Sustainable Prosperity Group - and so much more. She is a powerhouse organiser, and I’m proud to have her vote for the Greens Senate Preselection. With organisers like this we can get that second senate spot for sure!

    “I’m voting for Barbara because she has the experience, knowledge and leadership skills to change the political landscape in SA and give us the best chance of securing balance of power in the senate in the next federal election.

    Barbara has decades of experience as a campaigner, union activist, economist, and feminist. She stands for climate action, social and economic justice, treaty and a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people. She is an eminent public speaker and policy expert, and also puts in the hard yards as a grassroots campaigner.

    I think Barbara is the absolute ideal person to represent me as our next Greens senator, and I urge my fellow members to join me in voting for her in this preselection ballot”.

    Debra King an Organiser with Extinction Rebellion South Australia and Extinction Rebellion Australia and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Sociology (Flinders University). I was lucky enough to work with Debra King as an academic and now admire her creative and courageous leadership in climate activism. I value her support – given all that she has contributed. Deb's words:

    “Barbara’s ethical approach to the world has inspired me for over two decades. I first met her as a feminist activist in the mid-1990s and have since drawn on her work as a feminist economist, worked with her on the Work and Family Policy Roundtable and on research about the relationship between quality work and quality care in aged care. As an academic, Barbara was committed to addressing the structural conditions of work that adversely impacted on the wellbeing of workers and their capacity to combine work and life. She was very astute at linking research and topical issues to policy outcomes and then creating opportunities to influence decision-makers. As the Director of the Centre for Work and Life, Barbara was well respected by her staff who appreciated her kindness, mentoring and the thoughtful (and productive) work environment she created.

    Barbara speaks with intellectual clarity yet can make complex issues sound like common sense, and this enables her to connect with people on issues that matter. She has a valuable ability to work with a wide range of people and find effective ways of influencing decisions and working to bring about change. From my perspective, Barbara really ‘gets’ the essential relationship between personal troubles and public issues, and recognises the need for structural change to make a difference. As a sociologist, climate activist and voter I would love to see Barbara in the Senate.”