Culleton covets rural banking rehabilitation

He’s already prepared the introductory words of his first parliamentary speech, which he recited to Fairfax Agricultural Media while taking a first-hand view of his new work-place, when standing in the Senate’s public gallery yesterday.

“The opening line of my speech will be, ‘well may we say, God save the Queen because nothing is going to save the bankers’,” he said.

“My biggest audience in recent times has been a mob of sheep but now my audience seems to be all of Australia.”

Mr Culleton is confident of ultimately claiming his Upper House seat later this month, despite facing a complex web of legal challenges that’s raising media headlines nation-wide.

In contrast to his brief tour of Parliament House on Tuesday, Mr Culleton was arrested the day before as part of the legal process he went through to have a larceny conviction successfully annulled in the Armidale Local Court.

In March he was convicted, in his absence, on a charge of stealing a key from a tow truck driver who was trying to repossess a vehicle leased by his Guyra-based equine performance company.

Mr Culleton estimates the key was worth just $7.50 and was knocked out of his hand during his altercation with the driver.

He was originally unable to appear in the NSW court due to being on bail for a separate charge in WA relating to the alleged theft of a hire car used by receivers during a farm foreclosure at Cuballing in March last year, that’s due to be heard later this month.

Mr Culleton pleaded not guilty to the larceny charge yesterday which has now been adjourned for mention until September 12 to finalise the matter.

He said he was required to be placed under arrest yesterday in the formal court proceedings, to complete the appropriate paper work on the charge.

“It’s a process and I always wanted to do it,” he said.

“I certainly helped people around the police station on the day and we sort of had free range of the place.

“They didn’t put me into a cell and they didn’t detain me.

“I could have gone back out and got a focaccia over the other side of the street but with the sensitivity of the media and because it is personal, I just wanted to play it low.”

Mr Culleton said the larceny charge was “trivial” and if he took the $7.50 key to Cash Converters, “it would have no commercial value” but it had cost “a lot of money” in legal fees to defend himself.

“I can cop a civil action but when its criminal that’s personal and it cuts deep,” he said.

Conjecture exists over whether Mr Culleton will be eligible under constitutional rules to take his place in the Senate, which sits for the first time in the new parliament on August 30.

But the One Nation Senator said after yesterday’s hearing, “the coast is clear now and we always felt it was going to be that way”.

“We meant business because I meant business and we were able to jump the first hurdle and rightly so, because it was trivial,” he said.

“However, one must appreciate that these actions cost a lot of money and you have to deal with it the best way you can.”

Mr Culleton said the matter regarding the alleged vehicle theft still had be dealt with but was confident he’d still sit in parliament.

“I don’t want a pub fight on this,” he said.

“I’ve got some unfinished business but I want to deal with it properly and only take on one fight at a time and that’s the Muhammad Ali approach.

 “Ali came out in the eighth round against George Foreman and played the game well.

“They were swinging and missing but (Ali) said he’d keep on skipping.

“It’s one fight at a time for me and I’m dealing with it.”

Mr Culleton said he’d been charged with the theft of a motor vehicle but was, “totally not guilty”.

“How did I get it past 22 police officers?” he said.

“I must be a complete genius.”

Mr Culleton said there was no forensic evidence to convict him on the vehicle charge, including finger prints and no change to the fuel gauge or any kilometres added to the speedometer.

He said the car was also left on Bruce Dixon’s farm, where it was surrounded by

bales of straw, to impede its exit.

Mr Culleton said the two receivers from RSM Bird Cameron were driving around in the stubble while a serious fire ban was in place on the day and did not understand the danger, so the car was blocked.

“A number of people were there but because I was the head man and controlled the situation the police have charged me,” he said.

But Mr Culleton said he expected to win another six years, after his first three year term expired, with a Royal Commission set to be held into the banking sector where he plans to hold the banks to account on farm foreclosure practices.

“Already over in WA the people are happy, we’re moving along and we’ll get the job done,” he said.

“One Nation is a performer and Pauline Hanson has good people around her and we’re all about the people.

“I’m in the media at the moment (but) the media has got it all wrong and I’m coming through.

“I’m just a normal Australian that stands up for other Australians and I’m prepared to put my hand up for other people and get it right.”

Mr Culleton said he also had the One Nation leader’s 100 per cent backing and that support was mutual.

“We have is a very powerful team and people who are very experienced in certain areas,” he said.

“I’ve got full carriage of the Royal Commission and I have announced the jurisdiction of that will be in Perth.

“We’re bringing the banks west and it will happen.

“We will have a Royal Commission because it is out of control, especially in the agriculture and small business area.

“Small businesses are like microorganisms in your soil – if you don’t have proper balance there you won’t grow Australia and we can’t let our small business and agriculture just fall away.”

Mr Culleton said he was also due to meet with banks in Melbourne this Thursday to discuss the Royal Commission where he plans to examine lending issues impacting farmers from to the 2010 sale of the Landmark rural loans book to the ANZ Bank.

“We have been fighting a very big beast,” he said.

“The ANZ Bank has been a big beast (but) we’ve got it in the holding yards.

“We’ve now been able to break it in, take it to disciplinary classes, get it to sit, give it a biscuit, and it’s now starting to commercially deal with the farmers which is what we want and to show reform.

“The customer is always right attitude is what we want.

“It’s not only ANZ it’s all the banks and we’ll be looking right into it and there will be change; there’s no question about that.”

ANZ declined to comment on the meeting with Mr Culleton or his political plans for a Royal Commission into banking but stressed the issues concerning Mr Dixon’s farm had been resolved.