Independent Senator Rex Patrick has confirmed his plans to run for a South Australian Senate seat at the upcoming Federal election, due by the end of May.

Senator Patrick will face election for the first time, having replaced Senator Nick Xenephon when he stepped down in October 2017.

Formerly a colleague of Centre Alliance Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie and Senator Stirling Griff, Senator Patrick struck out on his own in 2020 to maximise his chances of re-election.

Last year he registered the Rex Patrick Team as a Parliamentary party with the Australian Electoral Commission.

For his second term as a Senator, he says he will continue to build on the old Australian Democrats maxim of working to ‘keep the bastards honest’. 

High on his agenda is to relentlessly champion the establishment of a Federal anti-corruption commission with real teeth, expose government wrongdoing, policy failures, along with corrupt and unethical behaviour.

“Neither the Liberals nor Labor have much interest in changing things, having built the system in their self-interest. They are not about acting in the national interest, it’s all about what is in the interest of their political party,” Senator Patrick says.

“I want to see a Federal ICAC take a deep dive into our national political life and the secret inner workings of the federal government, warts and all, so that we can scrape off the barnacles of resistance to meaningful change. 

“Any politician who does not support this, you have to wonder why? To protect themselves? A fellow crony? There is no middle ground, you either support integrity or you don’t.”

“We need independents in the Senate to push hard for transparency and accountability. We need to fix our broken, dysfunctional political system.”

The Senator is deeply concerned about extreme right parties from Queensland wanting to ‘cash-in’ on COVID.

“It’s hard to see how South Australia’s interests would be advanced by anyone beholden either to Mrs Hanson’s erratic dictates or Mr Palmer’s cheque book,” he says.

“I’m good for this fight. Many people have urged me to ‘Sic ‘Em Rex!’ I’ve adopted that famous catchphrase as my unofficial motto for the battle ahead.”

Full details of Senator Patrick's campaign are on his website.