Rod Culleton’s brassy return to Canberra

Mr Culleton flew into Canberra from Perth for the first day of federal parliament for the year, just days after being ruled ineligible to stand at last year’s federal election by the High Court, as per constitutional rules.

Despite the high profile controversy of his expulsion from parliament - exacerbated by the Federal Court also ruling last Friday that it had rejected his appeal on a bankruptcy ruling handed down on December 23 last year - Mr Culleton was in high demand by press gallery media, holding several television interviews.

But his presence also alerted parliament house security and Senate officials, who shadowed him around the house throughout the day, concerned he may try and break internal rules; including those regarding media access rights, for non-members.

In a heated Facebook post, filmed in the office of Queensland rural independent MP Bob Katter, Mr Culleton said he had returned to Canberra to watch the opening of the Senate and to see Mr Katter about issues concerning a farm foreclosure.

In the post, he claimed Mr Katter was also on the telephone – seated on the background – speaking to Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, trying to resolve the foreclosure of a grazing property near Pentland, in Queensland.

It’s understood the farm is that of Nolene Bradshaw who reportedly offered to pay $300,000 to try and remove Mr Culleton’s bankruptcy debt, in a last ditch bid to try and keep him in parliament last month, amid other fundraising efforts.

Mr Culleton was elected for One Nation at last year’s federal poll but quit late last year following a rift with party leader and Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson and the party’s other two Senators.

The split occurred just days before the one-time Williams farmers was ruled bankrupt, after escalating discontent over a perceived lack of action on his demands to hold a Royal Commission into banking, to focus on his complaints about rural bank lending.

Most members of parliament and media largely ignored Mr Culleton’s daredevil attendance for the first sitting day of the year and questioned whether there was any legitimate purpose to his visit, other than to cause a potential media storm.

But Mr Culleton and his staff member Margaret Menzel also expressed anger at their treatment by government officials following the bankruptcy ruling, with their pays and entitlements cut and then being locked-out of parliamentary offices in Perth and Canberra, following a normal two-week grace period.

Yesterday, Senate President Stephen Parry also updated the Senate on Mr Culleton’s disqualification, following his ongoing legal battles.

That brief including saying he’d written to the finance minister seeking further advice on questions about whether the former One Nation member would be forced to repay any salaries eared while he was acting as a Senator, since last July’s election.

Despite Mr Culleton’s niggling presence in the public gallery for the update, Senator Parry maintained a stern factual account of the unprecedented political saga.

He said on November 7 last year the Senate referred to the Court of Disputed Returns questions about the Mr Culleton’s eligibility to sit as a Senator with a judgment in the matter delivered last Friday.

Senator Parry also tabled a copy of the order made by the court and reasons for its judgment.

Senator Parry quoted the court’s published judgment summary, saying, “the High Court unanimously held that Rodney Norman Culleton was a person who was convicted and subject to be sentenced for an offence punishable by imprisonment for one year or longer at the time of the 2016 federal election, and therefore was incapable of being chosen as a Senator under s 44(ii) of the Constitution. The subsequent annulment of that conviction had no effect on that state of affairs”.

He said the court ordered that the resulting vacancy in the representation of Western Australia be filled by way of a special count of the ballot papers.

“While the matter referred by the Senate was on foot, Mr Culleton became subject to disqualification under sections 44 and 45 of the Constitution,” he said.

Senator Parry said a proceeding in the Federal Court under the Bankruptcy Act 1966, (Balwyn Nominees v Culleton) saw a sequestration order made against Mr Culleton’s estate on December 23 last year and an entry was then made on the National Personal Insolvency Index, that same day.

He said the court ordered a stay of proceedings under the sequestration order for a period of 21 days, which was later extended, which had the effect of pausing and restraining certain proceedings under the Bankruptcy Act but “such a stay does not prevent the order itself operating”.

“Section 45 provides that if a senator becomes subject to such disability, that senator or member's place shall thereupon become vacant,” he said.

“This does not depend upon any decision of the Senate or of myself as the President.

“It is a necessary and automatic consequence of the declaration that a serving Senator is an undischarged bankrupt, that his or her place as a senator becomes vacant.

“This was later confirmed in the Federal Court judgment handed down on February 3, 2017, dismissing Mr Culleton's appeal in the bankruptcy matter, which records, “The prima facie effect of the order of the Court on December 23, 2016 was to cause the vacation of his office as a Senator for Western Australia”.

Senator Parry said he received documentation from the Inspector-General in Bankruptcy on January 10 this year and from the Federal Court Registry the following day, which recorded the Mr Culleton’s status as an undischarged bankrupt.

He said on January 11, having received that advice, he therefore notified the Governor of Western Australia, that there was a vacancy in the state’s representation as a consequence of Senator Culleton’s disqualification.

“Mr Culleton sought, by several means, to avoid the consequences of his bankruptcy,” he said.

“He wrote to me on January 4 2017 asking that I recall the Senate to resolve his status as a Senator.

“I made a statement on January 9 outlining my response, noting that I was not empowered to recall the Senate in such circumstances and that, in any case, the Constitution did not give the Senate discretion to disregard a disqualifying event such as the bankruptcy of one its members.

“Mr Culleton, through his lawyers, later served a summons upon me and upon the Attorney-General, seeking, among other things, orders restraining me from taking steps to remove him from the Senate consequent upon his becoming bankrupt.

“That summons was dismissed in the High Court on January 31 past.”

Senator Parry said the Federal Court rejected Mr Culleton's appeal on the bankruptcy matter on February 3 also but the bankruptcy disqualification was “somewhat academic given the judgement of the Court of Disputed Returns”.

He said he’d been asked two questions, in particular, about the consequences of Mr Culleton sitting in the Senate despite being ineligible to do so.

The first is what effect his disqualification had on Senate proceedings in which he took part, he said.

Senator Parry said the Odgers' Australian Senate Practice noted that, “The presence in the Senate of a Senator found not to have been validly elected or to be disqualified does not invalidate the proceedings of the Senate in which the senator participated”.

He said the second question was whether Mr Culleton would be required to repay any salary or allowances paid to him as a Senator.

“I am advised that in previous cases opinions were provided by attorneys-general that those whose elections were declared void were not entitled to retain salary payments made to them,” he said.

“Currently the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 provides for the payment of salaries to senators

“Under section 16A of that act any such benefit paid without authority becomes a debt due to the Commonwealth.

“In earlier cases such debts have in effect been waived.

“However, I am advised that the decision whether to waive such debts is a decision for the government and not the Senate.

“I have written to the finance minister seeking further advice on this matter.”