Ex-senator gives pro-bono FOI advice to independents stuck in a ‘resource void’

Independent politicians have turned to former independent senator Rex Patrick for pro-bono political consulting services, as staff allowance cuts leave them short on the support required to extract documents from Labor and play a “proactive” role in Parliament.

The self-described “transparency warrior” has cut an indispensable figure during recent months, becoming a go-to undertaker of high-volume freedom of information requests in the policy areas of interest to several independent members and their staff. 

The effort, which Patrick calls “Project Argus”, came about after wealthy businessman Ian Melrose — who was responsible for bankrolling Nick Xenophon’s Senate bid in 2016 — approached Patrick after an unsuccessful repeat federal election bid last year. 

Patrick enlisted his former senior political adviser, Dr Philip Dorling, for part-time help, before taking the pitch to independent crossbenchers later in the year. Now the pair hope to “stir the political pot” to help independents starved of resources get on to the front foot in policy debates and deliver “better public policy” outcomes for their constituents.

The project secured its first piece of material intel last week, when inquiries related to the government’s reported pleas to the White House for Julian Assange’s return to Australia came up empty, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s promises to the contrary. 

Patrick said the initial request was made after independent MP Monique Ryan asked Albanese whether Australians could expect Labor to commit to government intervention to secure Assange’s return. 

“We saw her do what she did, and we went, ‘You know what, there are some interesting FOIs we could do around that,’” Patrick said. 

Requests are generally initiated in four ways, he said. First is a direct request by a member or one of their staff, with a clearly defined scope. The second usually follows a conversation with a member who has outlined a general area of interest, to which Patrick and Dorling offer advice on the best approach. The third typically sees Patrick and Dorling observe business of the day and initiate requests, bringing items to the attention of MPs as and when their efforts begin to get a return. The final category is pure fishing, firing off requests based on what they might think could bear the most fruit. 

So far, Patrick said he has had discussions with most independents and has developed close working relationships with those who, like him, have made transparency central to their political platforms. 

Senator Jacqui Lambie and independent MP Zali Steggall have shown a keen interest, he said, and Ryan was one of the earliest beneficiaries.

“[Another] example is where there have been some defence ones that I’ve submitted, that we think might be useful to Jacqui, because she had indicated to us that she’s interested in pursuing some more defence procurement-related stuff,” Patrick said. “So she doesn’t know about some of the FOIs that we’ve put in — we’ll just see if they yield a result.”

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie said the services are crucial to the crossbench’s ability to hold the government accountable.

“It’s the sort of work that I think the Australian community expects the crossbench to do,” she said. “I don’t have the capacity or resources to do that work, so it’s really helpful to me, particularly in relation to the Murray Darling Basin plan — it’s such a complex and opaque system.”