Culleton awaiting fallout of bankruptcy claim

Senator Culleton appeared in the Federal Court in Perth on Monday after announcing the night before that he’d quite Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party to turn independent following the escalation of ongoing tensions over a Royal Commission into banking.

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

Senator Culleton says he was elected on a pledge to pursue a Royal Commission to examine bank lending practices towards farmers, in particular the sale of the Landmark rural loans book to ANZ Bank.

But he has criticised Senator Hanson for not supporting his recent moves to use legislation on the backpacker tax and Australian Building and Construction Commission as leverage with the government, to progress a banking Royal Commission.

In response, Senator Hanson accused her former party colleague of not being a team player and that he was “media driven” and “it has all gone to his head”.

The former Williams farmer’s court appearance this week was linked to his grievances with the ANZ Bank and subsequent devaluation of his property which impacted his horse feeding business, and an alleged $200,000 claim by former Wesfarmers director Dick Lester.

Speaking before the hearing, Senator Culleton told Fairfax Agricultural Media the charges being pursued by Mr Lester related to a 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.

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

Senator Culleton said money was in trust that he believed could cover any amount of money that “anyone that might come to the table and say that I owe”.

He said he also hadn’t exhausted his legal remedies.

A ruling in 2013 ordered Senator Culleton to pay Mr Lester $200,000 over the failed property deal which he has unsuccessfully appealed against twice, escalating the alleged debt to $280,000 plus costs.

In October, Senator Culleton filed an urgent application with the Federal Court to stop Mr Lester and his companies taking action, to enforce the order.

The court was adjourned just after 4:30pm with Judge Barker saying he would deliver his findings on Friday.

Under section 44 of the Australian constitution, any person who is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent is ineligible for election.

But Senator Culleton told the court, “I am solvent your honour”.

Monday’s court hearing was marred by several incidents including the arrest of Bruce Bell and Frank Bertola who Senator Culleton was once involved with in seeking to publicly expose grievances over bank-lending practices towards farmers.

Mr Bertola met Senator Culleton outside the Supreme Court in WA while there for mediation with the ANZ Bank over the foreclosure of his sheep and grain farm at Bremer Bay where he farmed for 43 years.

Mr Bertola also lived with Mr Culleton for about three months after losing his farm but he and Mr Bell have since both fallen-out with the now-politician.

Despite having a restraining order taken out against them by Senator Culleton’s wife, the two men have been vigorously pushing a High Court challenge to test their one time ally’s constitutional eligibility to sit in federal parliament.

During the Perth hearing this week, Senator Culleton walked out of court after demanding Mr Bell and Mr Bertola be removed for having breached that violence restraining order.

After threatening to stand down from the court unless the two men were removed, Senator Culleton was told by Federal Court judge Michael Barker “don't try and control the court”.

The judge adjourned proceedings for five minutes before Senator Culleton returned and claimed a “major security breach” had occurred.

At one stage, Judge Barker described the proceedings as a “circus” and said his patience was being “tested”.

The Judge also dismissed Senator Culleton's application for a jury trial which he had requested to try and delay the proceedings, to improve his legal representation.

WA Police said two men were subsequently arrested at the Federal Court in Perth yesterday.

A 59 year old man from Belmont was charged with breach of a violence restraining order.

He was refused bail and was due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court today, (Tuesday December 20 2016).

A 65 year old man from Beckenham was also charged with the same offence but was taken to Royal Perth Hospital for an pre-existing medical condition and was due to appear at a bedside hearing, on the same day, WA Police said.

Senator Culleton is also anxiously awaiting a High Court ruling following a hearing held in Canberra earlier this month on a matter referred by the Upper House to answer whether he’s entitled to stay in federal parliament.

Sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, the proceedings are examining whether Senator Culleton breached election rules when he signed his nomination form ahead of the July 2 federal poll, to run for One Nation.

At the time, he was convicted in his absence and awaiting sentencing for a larceny charge that carried a penalty of up to 12-months jail.

The tow-truck key charge stemmed from an incident during a vehicle repossession attempt, at Guyra in NSW, linked to Senator Culleton’s horse feed business.

His barrister Peter King put forward a range of legal arguments to the High Court based on whether the authority existed to disqualify him from parliament, given that conviction was eventually annulled.