Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will quit the party

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will quit the party and run as an independent at the next election in a bid to retain his spot in parliament.

Senator Rex Patrick at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will quit the party – a rebranding of the Nick Xenophon Team – and run as an independent at the next election in a bid to retain his spot in parliament.

Mr Patrick said Centre Alliance would struggle to get a single seat in the next Senate, let alone two, which would be a disaster for South Australia.

“It’s more important than ever that SA keeps a strong and independent voice in the Senate to ensure that our state isn’t taken for granted by the major federal political parties, which are all dominated by the political and economic interests of Australia’s eastern coast,” Mr Patrick told The Adelaide Advertiser.

“Strong independent representation will be all the more important as SA works to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr Patrick said the decision was more of a “marketing” move than a split with fellow Centre Alliance MPs Senator Stirling Griff and Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie.

Mr Patrick, who replaced Mr Xenophon in October 2017 when his former boss embarked on an unsuccessful bid to return to state parliament, has vowed to remain outspoken on issues including Australia’s relationship with China, multibillion-dollar shipbuilding contracts and a nuclear waste dump in the SA Outback.

Mr Griff said Mr Patrick had been “running his own race for some time”.

“It’s no surprise that he is taking the step to divorce himself from the party that selected him,” he told The Advertiser.

He said the Centre Alliance party would continue to ensure that South Australia’s interests were protected.