Editorialised the title slightly to add what party he was running under so you didn’t have to click to read what he’s doing. The Canberra Times article is even worse; they don’t even tell you who’s running, just that Lambie found a former Senator to run.
Former senator Rex Patrick has announced he will run for a South Australian seat at the next election as a member of Jacqui Lambie’s political party.
Patrick, who previously served in federal parliament from 2017 until 2022, said while there were differences between himself and the Tasmanian senator, they were committed to working as a united front holding the government to account.
“Jacqui and I are not the same, she’s Army, and I’m Navy, we do things different, but that’s actually a strength, and there are areas of strong common values, particularly around transparency, integrity and accountability,” he said.
“We’ve had plenty of experience working together, we’ll be an effective tag team.”
Patrick, a former Navy officer, first entered parliament as a replacement for South Australian Nick Xenophon after he resigned for a failed bid in state politics.
Patrick was in federal parliament as a member of the Centre Alliance party, but split from the group in 2020 to serve as an independent.
At the 2022 election, he ran under his own party called the Rex Patrick Team but failed to get re-elected.
While he had been using the years out of politics as government transparency advocate and worked to protect prominent whistleblowers, Mr Patrick said he had unfinished business in Canberra.
“As much as I enjoy my current work as the ‘transparency warrior’, after careful consideration, I’ve concluded on balance I could do more for the public good as a senator for South Australia,” he said.
“I know the job, I have the skills to hold ministers, bureaucrats and indeed admirals and generals responsible for their actions.”
Lambie said 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. We need to get Rex back into the Senate so SA once again has a sensible voice representing them in Canberra,” she said.
“He works hard to hold the government accountable. He should be in the Senate where he can continue to represent the interests of everyday Australians.”
The next election is due to be held by May 2025.
joeldipops on
What a move – after what happened in Tas I don’t think JLN has any petrol in the tank and yet if I was in SA, I’d totally vote for Patrick.
If he was elected, I’d rate the chance of him sticking in Lambie’s party for more than a few months pratically 0
BUT, I dunno, maybe there’s some universe where both of them put their egos aside and found some kinda party based on values and not just on <That public figure you’ve heard of>’s ego.
ausmankpopfan on
Seriously when will people stop voting for demagogue parties jln pauline xeno palmer i dont understand parties based on one personality always collapse everyone who joined one nation and got elected either quit or got kicked out over time Lambie has lost all of her members except one parma the same that’s how we got Lambie
TrevorLolz on
Give it a rest, Rex. This is like his 4th go and three different levels of government. Never won.
Sunburnt-Vampire on
I’ll likely give him my 2nd preference after the Greens even though pretty sure he’s more right-wing than Labor.
The area he puts the most effort into is transparency in politics, and it’s just too beneficial to have another senator using their position to file FOI requests and such.
Just this week the Greens’ senator David Shoebridge found an unreleased report just…. on a website. After the government had refused for weeks to release it. The more people we have actively looking for and applying for the release of these documents, the better off we’ll all be.
DBrowny on
Yeah we don’t need cookers like him in the senate. In the house, or anywhere. Never seen a man so angry at the system, yet provide so little solutions to anything. Dude needs to get a real job, grandstanding career politicians like him have never helped anyone.
Throwawaydeathgrips on
Rex is pretty whatever, but the dude really pissed me off with his non-stop bitching about the S3TC *that he voted for*. I didnt like s3tc, glad the were changed, but to vote for it and then the second you arent in Parliament decide its the worst policy imaginable makes me think the dude really shouldnt be an officeholder.
persistenceoftime90 on
Why he’s joining a political party that revolves around Lambie’s brain explosions isn’t explained.
8 Comments
Editorialised the title slightly to add what party he was running under so you didn’t have to click to read what he’s doing. The Canberra Times article is even worse; they don’t even tell you who’s running, just that Lambie found a former Senator to run.
Former senator Rex Patrick has announced he will run for a South Australian seat at the next election as a member of Jacqui Lambie’s political party.
Patrick, who previously served in federal parliament from 2017 until 2022, said while there were differences between himself and the Tasmanian senator, they were committed to working as a united front holding the government to account.
“Jacqui and I are not the same, she’s Army, and I’m Navy, we do things different, but that’s actually a strength, and there are areas of strong common values, particularly around transparency, integrity and accountability,” he said.
“We’ve had plenty of experience working together, we’ll be an effective tag team.”
Patrick, a former Navy officer, first entered parliament as a replacement for South Australian Nick Xenophon after he resigned for a failed bid in state politics.
Patrick was in federal parliament as a member of the Centre Alliance party, but split from the group in 2020 to serve as an independent.
At the 2022 election, he ran under his own party called the Rex Patrick Team but failed to get re-elected.
While he had been using the years out of politics as government transparency advocate and worked to protect prominent whistleblowers, Mr Patrick said he had unfinished business in Canberra.
“As much as I enjoy my current work as the ‘transparency warrior’, after careful consideration, I’ve concluded on balance I could do more for the public good as a senator for South Australia,” he said.
“I know the job, I have the skills to hold ministers, bureaucrats and indeed admirals and generals responsible for their actions.”
Lambie said 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. We need to get Rex back into the Senate so SA once again has a sensible voice representing them in Canberra,” she said.
“He works hard to hold the government accountable. He should be in the Senate where he can continue to represent the interests of everyday Australians.”
The next election is due to be held by May 2025.
What a move – after what happened in Tas I don’t think JLN has any petrol in the tank and yet if I was in SA, I’d totally vote for Patrick.
If he was elected, I’d rate the chance of him sticking in Lambie’s party for more than a few months pratically 0
BUT, I dunno, maybe there’s some universe where both of them put their egos aside and found some kinda party based on values and not just on <That public figure you’ve heard of>’s ego.
Seriously when will people stop voting for demagogue parties jln pauline xeno palmer i dont understand parties based on one personality always collapse everyone who joined one nation and got elected either quit or got kicked out over time Lambie has lost all of her members except one parma the same that’s how we got Lambie
Give it a rest, Rex. This is like his 4th go and three different levels of government. Never won.
I’ll likely give him my 2nd preference after the Greens even though pretty sure he’s more right-wing than Labor.
The area he puts the most effort into is transparency in politics, and it’s just too beneficial to have another senator using their position to file FOI requests and such.
Just this week the Greens’ senator David Shoebridge found an unreleased report just…. on a website. After the government had refused for weeks to release it. The more people we have actively looking for and applying for the release of these documents, the better off we’ll all be.
Yeah we don’t need cookers like him in the senate. In the house, or anywhere. Never seen a man so angry at the system, yet provide so little solutions to anything. Dude needs to get a real job, grandstanding career politicians like him have never helped anyone.
Rex is pretty whatever, but the dude really pissed me off with his non-stop bitching about the S3TC *that he voted for*. I didnt like s3tc, glad the were changed, but to vote for it and then the second you arent in Parliament decide its the worst policy imaginable makes me think the dude really shouldnt be an officeholder.
Why he’s joining a political party that revolves around Lambie’s brain explosions isn’t explained.
Or what exactly he offers, or did, for SA.