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One Nation's Pauline Hanson abandons fellow Senator Rod Culleton
Australian Financial Review Nov 7 2016 11:40 PM
Primrose Riordan
The split between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and West Australia senator Rodney Culleton widened on Monday when the senator said she would be supporting the government in referring questions over whether he was eligible to the High Court.
Labor and the Greens agreed in the Senate on Monday to refer both the election of former South Australian Family First senator Bob Day and of Senator Culleton to the High Court.
Labor has accused the government of being slow to act on Mr Day, suggesting they hid the drama to keep his vote on key legislation.
While the referral did not need her support for the move, Senator Hanson said One Nation would be supporting the motion and released an application form from Senator Culleton that stated he was eligible to be a candidate, which she said was signed before a Justice of the Peace.
An alleged creditor of Senator Culleton, Bruce Bell, lodged a petition with the High Court in September claiming that Senator Culleton was ineligible to nominate as a candidate because at the time he was convicted and awaiting sentence for a larceny charge in NSW that could carry a penalty of more than 12 months in jail.
As a result of Mr Bell's action, the federal government was asked to respond by the court, and now the Senate has referred the election of Senator Culleton to the High Court itself.
While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has previously expressed confidence about Senator Culleton's case, it might not be so watertight. On Monday, Senator Culleton released legal advice from former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson saying the case was "deficient" and needed to be "cured" before going before the court of disputed returns.
It is also unclear whether, if the case to render Senator Culleton ineligible is successful, One Nation could simply replace him with another of their candidates. Mr Gleeson said the most likely outcome is that the court would order a "special count" of the ballot papers.
Senator Hanson said Senator Culleton would not be pleased with her decision but that politicians needed to be held accountable to the Australian people and she needed to show that she respected Parliament's processes.
"I cannot sit back and disregard what may have been a wrong judgment, but I will leave it up to the courts to make the final decision," she told Parliament.
The Coalition also released a number of documents about Mr Day's case on Monday, which show the former senator repeatedly approaching the government to get them to pay rent for his office, none of which was ever paid. Since the funds could ultimately have ended up in his hands, it could be in conflict with the constitution and his election would be invalid.
Senator Mathias Cormann told the Senate that he knew between February and March this year - when he was acting Special Minister of State - there were issues with the government's agreements with Mr Day that they would fund his office lease if he sold his interests in the property.
"Further information came to light—namely, that the bank account to receive the rental payments was an account linked to then Senator Day," he said.
But he said he thought a decision to cancel any moves towards paying the rent would avoid any conflict with the constitution.
"I understood at the time that the non-payment of rent meant that any potential breach of section 44 of the Constitution had been avoided.
"At no point did I receive any advice from the Department of Finance that the lease signed on 1 December 2015 in itself and in the absence of rental payments could cause a potential breach of section 44 of the Constitution," Senator Cormann said.
Special Minister of State Scott Ryan - sworn in as the new Special Minister of State on July 18 - said on August 7 that Mr Day approached him for the rent and he even mentioned the constitutional conflict to dismiss it as an issue. The government then began to examine the issue, receiving legal advice on it on October 27. The government announced the High Court challenge on November 1.
Labor have accused the government of "turning a blind eye" to suspicions Mr Day was improperly receiving funds from the Commonwealth to avoid "losing a trusted Senate ally" and have demanded the government release the legal advice.
Meanwhile, amid the Hanson-Culleton split, Kennedy MP Bob Katter denied he personally had approached Senator Culleton about defecting to his Katter's Australia Party. But he told The Australian Financial Review that someone close to the party had previously approached him.
Mr Katter said Senator Culleton had so far decided against the move, but after Monday's events anything could happen.
"He completely rejected the idea, as I think any person on integrity would... but after today, well I don't know what happens after today, we're in a different world after today," Mr Katter said.
Senator Culleton said he would continue to vote on legislation despite the questions over his future.
"What is clear is that this government was prepared repeatedly to turn a blind eye to Senator Day's office arrangements to avoid losing a trusted Senate ally. This is a mess of the government's own making."
Senator Culleton said he was surprised by Senator Hanson's decision, but declined to directly criticise her, simply saying: "I guess it's a different playing field here".
He also fuelled rumours Senator Hanson's staffer James Ashby may have political ambitions telling Sky News "he probably wants to parachute into a lot of places", and subsequently declining to say whether he trusted him.