Transparency crusader Rex Patrick has joined forces with Jacqui Lambie to seek re-election to the Senate at the next federal election, citing “unfinished business” around Freedom of Information (FoI) and transparency.

He will be the lead candidate on the South Australian ticket for the Jacqui Lambie Network, the minor party that has experienced a tumultuous period in state and federal politics in 2024.

Patrick told The New Daily that he first met Lambie when he was an adviser to the former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon.

“On occasions, Nick used to send me down to help Jacqui with inquiries where I had knowledge I could contribute,” he said.

“Throughout and since my time in the Senate, I’ve been helping her with Freedom of Information requests, writing up questions on notice and assisting her from time to time with bills.”

He said that in politics “there is always unfinished business”.

“The Senate needs a submariner to look closely at this grandiose submarine program that is AUKUS,” Patrick said.

“I’ve had the benefit of sitting back and watching the Senate from a different perspective and there is something broken there, and I can contribute to fixing some of those problems.”

Patrick served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1983 to 1994, serving on multiple submarines, and was the Senator for South Australia from 2017 to 2022.

Lambie, like Patrick, also served in the Australian military, albeit in the army and said that her former Senate colleague would be a valuable asset to the Jacqui Lambie Network.

“Rex’s departure from the Senate was a loss for all of us, but particularly South Australia,” she said.

“We need to get Rex back into the Senate so SA once again has a sensible voice representing them in Canberra.”

FoI crusader

Patrick is a self-described “public interest trouble-maker” and has assisted other members of Parliament and senators on how to submit FoI requests and was an advocate for stronger whistleblowing laws.

He said the Albanese government has failed to meet its “very low target” for protecting whistleblowers.

“The target they set was to be better than Scott Morrison and he simply hasn’t met it,” he said.

“We had the government come in promising to protect them, but they haven’t introduced substantive legislation into the Parliament.”

Richard Boyle, an ATO whistleblower, is currently facing criminal charges in South Australia and Patrick started the Whistleblower Justice Fund to support him.

Long history

Patrick said that independents or small parties have long represented South Australia.

“We (South Australia) are now without an independent in the Senate so all we have are Labor, Liberal and Greens senators,” he said.

“They can be constrained by party guardrails and the great thing about independent or small parties like the Jacqui Lambie Network is there’s no constraint on us.”

He said that during his last stint in the Senate, he witnessed his colleagues cast votes without knowing what they were voting for.

“I used to ask them: ‘Do you know what we are voting on?’ And the answer was ‘no’,” Patrick said.

“They simply walk into the chamber, look at where the whip is sitting and sit down.”

The network’s other federal senator, Tammy Tyrell, left the party in March 2024 after being elected at the 2022 federal election.

Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrrell quit the Jacqui Lambie Network this year, and remains as an independent. Photo: AAP

The Jacqui Lambie Network elected three members to the Tasmanian state parliament, but only one remains in the party.

Lambie later announced that she will no longer run candidates in Tasmanian state politics.