Culleton skips party meeting in latest sign of One Nation turmoil

EMBATTLED senator Rod Culleton has skipped a One Nation love-in on the Great Barrier Reef in the latest sign of a growing rift in the party.

One Nation Senator Rod Culleton has skipped a party meeting in Queensland. Picture: Ray Strange

EMBATTLED senator Rod Culleton has skipped a planned One Nation love-in on the Great Barrier Reef in the latest sign of a growing rift in the party.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson headed to Queensland with fellow senators Malcolm Roberts and Brian Burston on Friday.

But the WA One Nation senator stayed behind in Canberra after an extraordinary week in Parliament which saw him referred to Queensland police over allegedly attempting to pervert to course of justice, publicly clash with his party leader, then randomly wander into the wrong Question Time.

The rest of his party was headed to the reef, where they will be swimming ahead of a party meeting on climate science.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and Senator Rod Culleton publicly clashed this week. Picture: Gary Ramage

But the embattled Senator, who is also facing a High Court case over whether he was eligible to be elected to the Senate because of a larceny conviction at the time of the July 2 election, stayed behind “get across the ABCC” and to speak with the Prime Minister ahead of the final parliamentary sitting week for the year.

Senator Culleton and his three One Nation colleagues hold key crossbench votes the government needs to pass important bills, including one of the double dissolution triggers — restoring the building industry watchdog.

The Senator told reporters in Canberra he and the Prime Minister had discussed his push for a Royal Commission into the financial industry.

When asked about his relationship with the other One Nation members, Senator Culleton denied he had been approached by other parties but joked “If I was in the draft pick, I’d be number one pick for a few”.

Senator Culleton then re-iterated he would remain with One Nation.

The growing rift between the senator and his party leader flared on Wednesday when both of them failed to show up to a meeting scheduled to discuss Culleton’s Queensland police matter on Tuesday night.

“Rod, excuse me, I’m party leader,” Senator Hanson told the ABC on Tuesday evening.

“I expect you to come to my office, right.

“It’s about being a team player.

“I have the respect from my other senators, and I expect the same from Rod Culleton, under the banner of One Nation, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.”

After the pair eventually met on Wednesday afternoon, Culleton told media there was “a bit of smoke” at the meeting but everything would be fine.

He denied he had any plans to leave the party.

Earlier in the month, it was reported a Hanson staffer had lobbed a phone at Senator Culleton’s chief of staff in an argument over a Facebook Live chat.

The division had been growing since the Federal Government announced its intention to refer questions over Senator Culleton’s eligibility to be elected to the High Court in early November.