Rex Patrick has used parliamentary privilege to blast his former boss Nick Xenophon, declaring working for Huawei at this point in history is akin to someone “choosing to do PR work for the German companies Krupp or Messerschmitt in 1938”.
Xenophon, the high profile former senator who confirmed last week he will run again as a Senate candidate in the upcoming federal election, has worked as strategic counsel for the Chinese telco, which was banned from Australia’s 5G contract on national security grounds.
Xenophon’s decision to run again for the Senate is problematic for Patrick, who has to contest the coming election in South Australia with lower name recognition than his former boss and one-time running mate.
Xenophon hit back at Patrick on Wednesday morning. He told Guardian Australia: “It is unbecoming of Rex Patrick to reference the lead-up to the Holocaust in a miserable attempt to dredge up some votes.”
In a Senate adjournment debate on budget night, Patrick declared Xenophon needed to be “completely transparent about his dealings with the Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei”.
“While working for Huawei, Mr Xenophon did not register it with the Australian Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme,” Patrick said. “In this, he appears to have relied on the exemption for persons providing legal advice to foreign organisations and a claim that he was not directly lobbying government ministers.
“However, the work that Xenophon Davis did for Huawei appears to have been largely in the public relations field and directed towards influencing the federal government to reopen the door for Huawei to infiltrate Australia’s 5G telecommunications network.”
Xenophon said on Wednesday Patrick’s observations were “miserable”. He said he had not worked for Huawei for more than 18 months.
He noted former politicians, including John Brumby and the Howard-era Liberal foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, once served on the company’s board. Xenophon said he supported “the bipartisan approach on foreign policy, and on China”.
“I want to act for the needs of South Australians – Rex wants to play out his war fantasies.”
Patrick is a former submariner, with significant policy interests in defence and foreign affairs, as well as transparency.
The Turnbull government blacklisted both Huawei and ZTE from Australia’s 5G network in August 2018 in response to security advice. The United States has also banned Huawei, and warned that European allies who used communications technology provided by it in their networks put intelligence relationships at risk.
Patrick said Xenophon’s decision to work for Huawei was a “misjudgment”.
“Mr Xenophon now says that he has not worked for Huawei for some time, though we don’t know when he ceased,” Patrick said.
“He now claims to support the Australian government’s 5G ban on Huawei. As a declared Senate candidate, he should now, in the interests of transparency and accountability, disclose the full details of his contractual relationship with Huawei”.
“He should disclose the terms, conditions and duration of his contract; what instructions he accepted from Huawei; and precisely what services he and Mr Davis [Xenophon’s partner in his legal practice] were paid for”.
Patrick isn’t the only politician on the warpath about Xenophon. After he confirmed he would stand for the Senate last week, the Liberal senator James Paterson, who chairs parliament’s intelligence and security committee, said the former senator had questions to answer.
Federal parliament is sitting for the final week before Scott Morrison calls the election. With the finish line in sight, politicians are using the platform of the parliament to position themselves for the coming contest.
In Tuesday night’s adjournment debate, as well as Patrick taking on Xenophon, the Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells launched an extraordinary attack on Morrison in parliament, labelling him an “autocrat [and] a bully who has no moral compass”.
The senator – who has recently been relegated to an unwinnable spot on the Liberal party’s NSW Senate ticket – used a late-night speech in the upper house on Tuesday to accuse the prime minister of destroying the Liberal party.
