Culleton quits One Nation

Ahead of today, where he’s due to face court in WA on bankruptcy charges, Senator Culleton issued a late night media statement revealing he’d advised the One Nation national executive and other Senate members that he’d resigned his party membership.

He said he would continue his term as a WA Senator in the 45th Parliament, independently of One Nation.

“Since my election to the Senate, I have consistently remained committed to all of the policies and pre-election promises, however my One Nation Senate colleague’s public record shows they have not,” the former Williams farmer said.

“I refused to support the sale of Australian prime, agricultural land to foreign ownership before the election and I will continue to do so.

“One Nation policy supports the Australian bid for Kidman Station, not the Reinhart/Shanghai CRED foreign backed consortium, which Senator Hanson supported.”

But Senator Hanson hit back hard in the media this morning saying Senator Culleton wasn’t a team player and was upset that she refused to use membership funds to back his defence in a High Court challenge testing his eligibility for election.

Senator Hanson said she was sorry for what had happened but promised Senator Culleton’s seat would remain “a One Nation seat”.

She said the person she would chose to put in for her team, to take up that position, would be “someone that I believe is right for that job”.

Senator Hanson said she’d not spoken to Senator Culleton directly, and only learned about his resignation after taking a phone call alerting her to a Facebook post revealing his decision.

“I got no phone call, no warning, nothing,” she said.

“It has been like that with Rod for weeks now.

“He will not talk to me, he won't converse with me (and) he won't talk about policies with me or the party for that matter.

“This is what I have had to face for weeks.”

Asked if she was glad to see the back of Senator Culleton, Senator Hanson said “too right I am”.

“He is not a team player…I thought he was,” she said.

“I thought he was going to be a great Senator, standing up for the farmer sector (against) the banking sector.”

Senator Hanson met Senator Culleton when she saw him presenting at a Senate inquiry into banking and was impressed by his experiences and let him join her party.

But today she said, “It has all gone to his head” and he was “media driven”.

“He likes to see his name in the paper - that is not what this is about,” she said.

“It is all about being a team player to sit down and discuss about the policies.

“What he has written is a load of BS.”

Senator Culleton’s resignation statement said the backpacker legislation was “a case in point” of how he broke ranks with One Nation to achieve an outcome.

He said policy decisions have been “run in morning media, with no consultation, discussion or agreement from the party room”.

Personal attacks and undermining, un-Australian behaviour towards myself and my team, has been ongoing and terms dictated to the team, he said.

“I can no longer tolerate the lack of party support for my positive initiatives, including the recent abandonment of One Nation’s pre-election commitment to a banking Royal Commission”, he said.

“The leader’s public rants against me have also been accompanied by demands for my resignation and control over diaries, office management and staffing by Senator Hanson and her Chief of Staff, James Ashby.

“When Senator Hanson repeatedly asked for me to stand as a One Nation Senate candidate to represent Western Australia, it was to be different to the major parties who are expected to follow the party dictates and act as little more than puppets whose ‘vote strings’ are pulled by the dictates of others, irrespective of their own conscience.

“One Nation promised to be different but in practice has failed to deliver on this and many other fronts.”

Senator Culleton told Fairfax Agricultural Media he believed Mr Ashby was being groomed to be parachuted into his WA Senate position but that wasn’t possible.

“It’s always been indicated right through the party that James Ashby would look at parachuting into the WA seat and I was asked about that and said, ‘James Ashby tries to parachute into a lot of peoples’ seats but he won’t be going into Western Australia’,” he said.

“Western Australia has to have a West Australian and a true leader.

He said Senator Hanson wasn’t able to replace him with someone from her party.

“It’s my seat ad I paid for my own campaign anyway,” he said.

“98 per cent of the campaign I funded myself.”

Senator Culleton refused to say exactly how much of his own money was spent on his election campaign but said it was “plenty”.

“I funded a lot myself because I needed to get to another platform to get the message delivered that we needed a Royal Commission into the banks and I’ve never, ever, ever taken my eye of the target and that’s what I’ve gone for.

“An RC for an RC – Rod Culleton for a Royal Commission.”

Senator Culleton said he’d asked Pauline Hanson for money to help defend his legal battles and had “simply asked for support”.

“I can put my hand on my chest now – I have never asked her for money to support my legal fees and I’ve never, ever asked anyone else,” he said.

“I fight my own battles.

“I’m a solo sailor despite how heavy the ocean gets.”

Senator Hanson said she knew nothing about the legal charges or conviction relating to Senator Culleton’s eligibility for election, when he signed his nomination form, as per section 44 of the Australian constitution.

She said she’d previously backed him “with all the problems” and had also declined his offer of resignation - but that changed when she warned his High Court challenge could cost $1 million.

“He said to me, ‘do you want me to resign?’ I said yes,” she said.

She said last night and yesterday afternoon, Senator Culleton was chasing around farmers in the WA and Queensland, and the party, for her to use membership money to back his court cases.

“I won't and that is why he has finally come out last night because he is facing the court today on bankruptcy charges,” she said.

But Senator Culleton said today’s court action - taken out against him by former Wesfarmers director Dick Lester - related to disagreement over an approach to buy a $17.8m property that he’d already part-purchased.

But he said that purchase wasn’t possible because “at that very point in time the ANZ came in and purported to buy out the Landmark loans book”.

“Dick Lester has not ever wanted money - he has spent over $1m chasing a purported debt of $200,000 and what’s that say?” he said.

“His ulterior motive was to take the intellectual property of Rod Culleton.”

Senator Culleton said he cannot be bankrupted and was not insolvent or broke.

“You can only bankrupt someone when they’re broke,” he said.

“I have a right to appeal to the primary judgment and I’ll be exercising that right and I’ll be telling the court that today.

“I’ll deal with it like I’ve been dealing with everything else.

“Today I’m going to respectfully tell the court I’m not insolvent - that is absolute nonsense - I can pay my bills.

“I have money I believe in trust that can cover any amount of money that anyone that might come to the table and say that I owe.

“I haven’t exhausted my legal remedies.

“I will respectfully ask the court, that if it’s going to run into a trial, that I have proper legal advice and counsel.

“They’re pulling this on less than a week out from Christmas (but) I can’t get good counsel right at Christmas time, everything is winding down, so I’m going in as a self-litigant today.”

Senator Culleton said fighting the cost of his legal battles, including the High Court case, was proving to be an escalating challenge.

“Lawyers don’t run on fresh air,” he said.

“They’re like putting petrol in the tank of a Ferrari – unless you put at least a jerry can in there to fire it up they’re not going to go down the road at all.

“Even though I’ve got the government prepared to pay my legal fees (on the High Court case) there’s always a delayed reaction.

“It’s like throwing a boomerang and hoping the bloody thing’s going to come back – you’ve got to fund your lawyers first and then the government will reimburse you.

“The government at the moment takes a long time to reimburse funds, and this is the thing, I’ve got to now turn around and fund another one.

“Litigation is hellishly expensive and you can spend $1m in a week preparing for one case.

“In one case it can go well past one million bucks and that’s the truth – I have to be very measured because money is very precious to me at the moment.”

Senator Culleton said he expected to resume his place in the Upper House when parliament returned in the New Year but now as an independent “bright eyed and bushy-tailed”.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

“I am not worried at all.

“And if the High Court rules against me, which I don’t believe it will, but if it did, I want all my money back because I’ve been given a bum steer going through the courts with ‘annulment’ and I paid for that.

“And if the court can’t clear something that was done in absentia you can have a cranky judge turn up to court, not like (you), and just convict you while you’re not there and you become a criminal and you can’t clear your name.

That is not a democracy that we’re living in - it’s not justice.

“I came to Pauline Hanson with a fight to deal with the banks and the courts and they are not easy ones to go in and challenge and as a party leader she has just abandoned me after I’m three quarters of the way through the fight.”

Senator Culleton said his role on the crossbench and dealing with other members would remain “business”, like a job, and nothing personal.

“While I was in business I couldn’t stand a few of the guys I did business with but it’s about professionalism; I’m there to do a job,” he said.

“I’ll be respectful and we’ll get the job done.

“I’m not there for a party - I’m there for the people - the crossbench doesn’t elect me the people do.

“But can I tell you this - I don’t think the Senate’s ever been put into the public profile - in the public - like it has since I’ve been there.

“I certainly didn’t see much of the Senate and I certainly didn’t see much of the constitution (previously) and isn’t it amazing now that both the major parties want to go to a republic, so I’ve done a lot of bloody good work I can tell (you).”