X-man ready to take them all on: the good, the bad, the ugg-ly

Nick Xenophon is steeling himself to return to Canberra, saying the trigger is his feud with government over a battling ugg boot maker.

Asked about his plans, Nick Xenophon quoted Al Pacino’s character Michael Corleone from The Godfather III, saying: ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’ Picture Roy VanDerVegt

Former Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon is steeling himself to return to federal politics and run as an independent candidate at the next federal election.

The re-emergence of the popular political maverick threatens to up-end the major parties’ designs on snaring the sixth Senate spot in South Australia. He is planning to run on a platform of protecting jobs and ensuring workers and manufacturers do not miss out under the new deal over submarines.

Mr Xenophon also hopes that, with rising support for One Nation in Queensland and NSW, he could help form a more moderate bloc in the Senate to prevent Pauline Hanson’s party from holding the balance of power.

Despite imploding at the 2018 South Australian election by running for the lower house, Mr Xenophon still commands significant support in a state with a history of backing minor parties and where many voters like his unorthodox style.

In his many political guises Mr Xenophon has rarely polled below 15 per cent and would likely attract enough support to snare the fifth or sixth spot in SA – his chances improved by the fact that his two former colleagues, independent Rex Patrick and Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff, both face re-election at the next poll.

Asked about his plans on Tuesday, Mr Xenophon quoted Al Pacino’s character Michael Corleone from The Godfather III, saying: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. It’s not so much that I miss it but I am definitely sure that my former political colleagues don’t miss me, and that is part of the attraction. I will be an even more pesky and persistent bastard if I come back. I am fired up.”

Nick Xenophon in Northside Souvenirs at Pooraka, South Australia, on Tuesday. Picture Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Xenophon said the trigger for his ­planned return was his long-­running feud with the federal government over a copyright case he is trying to have heard in the US Supreme Court on behalf of a battling Australian ugg boot maker against US footwear giant Dekkers. Western Sydney boot maker Eddie Oygur was sued by Dekkers in 2016 for exporting 13 pairs of “Ugg” brand boots to the US, leaving him with fines of $3m and a $1.5m legal bill after a Chicago court found the American shoe giant had sole rights to use of the term “ugg”.

While the commonwealth has provided $200,000 to Mr Oygur to fight the case in the US Supreme Court, Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has stopped short of intervening under what’s known in US law as “a friend of the court”, meaning there is a chance the matter will never come to trial.

“I am so fed up with the way the government has treated this issue that I am seriously considering throwing my hat back in the ring at the next federal election,” Mr Xenophon said.

“This is an issue of national pride where a quiet Aussie battler has taken on the world. The tern ‘ugg’ originated in Australia and is part of our identity. It’s exactly the kind of thing our federal government should be throwing its weight behind. I see it as part of a general political malaise where politicians have lost sight of what actually matters.”

Nick Xenophon outside Parliament House in Canberra, in 2016.

Mr Xenophon, 62, recently became a father for the second time with his new partner and said there were many other issues that he wanted to campaign on. He said aged care, public health, drug rehabilitation and defence were major issues, especially with what he said were doubts created by the new submarine deal under AUKUS. “I think you can practically guarantee there will be a lot fewer local jobs under the new subs deal,” he said. “We don’t want to stand by and watch this project turning into a Lego-style assembly line for local workers and local manufacturers.”

Since leaving politics after failing at the 2018 state election Mr Xenophon returned to law doing plaintiff work in Adelaide’s northeast. He jokingly describes himself as SA’s Dennis Denuto, a reference to the fictional solicitor in the comedy The Castle.

Mr Xenophon has been a major player in SA politics since winning an upper house spot as a “No Pokies” candidate in 1997 before moving to the Senate in 2007 when he announced his candidacy at the Adelaide Zoo giraffe enclosure promising to “stick my neck out for SA”.

He quit the Senate in 2017 announcing he had formed a new party, SA Best, to contest every seat in the 2018 state election.

Despite early polls showing he was on target to become premier, Mr Xenophon and his party failed to make the transition as a lower house force and lost every seat amid criticisms of a lack of policy detail and a gimmicky hip-hop election jingle that was pilloried.