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Maverick Nick Xenophon is eyeing a return to politics at the next election.
The 62-year-old lawyer was a senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017 before running for state parliament, a move which backfired when his SA Best party failed to win any seats.
He now wants return to the senate and is tipped to win the fifth or sixth South Australia spot at next year's election.
Political maverick Nick Xenophon (pictured in 2018) is eyeing a return to politics at the next election
The former senate power broker is an ex-Liberal member but considers himself a centrist who can help counter the influence of Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
Mr Xenophon will campaign on aged care, public health, drug rehabilitation and defence, having raised concerns that scrapping a submarine deal with France would cost jobs in Adelaide where the boats were meant to be built.
'Like Al Pacino in The Godfather, once I thought I was out, they try to drag me back in,' he told ABC radio Wednesday.
'I would run as an independent - it's where my natural habitat is as a pesky independent.'
Last year Mr Xenophon was criticised by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for his work as 'strategic counsel' for Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which had been banned from supplying 5G in Australia due to concerns about Chinese spying.
