Rod Culleton’s banking royal commission crusade could be over

The long arm of the civil law is catching up with anti-bank crusader Rod Culleton.

The long arm of the civil law is catching up with anti-bank crusader Rod Culleton, whose new career from today as a sworn-in One Nation senator agitating for a bank royal commission looks increasingly likely to be short-lived.

In a decision published yesterday, the WA Court of Appeal effectively says Culleton and his wife Ioanna have reached the end of the line — there’s no reason to suspend the enforcement of a $205,536.50 debt owed to the former Wesfarmers director Dick Lester.

Culleton, who did not return calls yesterday, subscribes to the view that truth and vindication is assured if he still has the option of an appeal.

Sadly for him, even that option seems to have been closed off.

The two judges sitting on the Court of Appeal noted that Ioanna Culleton’s appeal against the original judgment had been dismissed, she had abandoned the right to a High Court appeal, and that both those matters had not been challenged in her latest bid to suspend enforcement.

“And even if they had been, they are not reasonably contestable in the circumstances,” the judges concluded.

“All avenues of appeal against the primary decision having been exhausted, there was no basis upon which its enforcement might properly be suspended.”

The judgment seems as conclusive as the English language allows. But who knows?

Under the Constitution, Culleton must avoid bankruptcy or insolvency if he’s going to use his red seat in the upper house to wage war against the banks.

He also faces disqualification if two former colleagues successfully challenge his eligibility in the Court of Disputed Returns, on the grounds that he allegedly failed to declare a larceny conviction that was subsequently annulled.

The Lester/Culleton spat dates back to a soured 2009 deal in which the Culletons agreed to buy a property in the WA wheatbelt to expand their oat farming business.

The purchase price for most of the property was $13.2 million, with the remainder covered by a lease agreement.

When the first instalment of the rent was due three months later, Culleton told Lester he had a cash flow problem. Weeks later, the deal was terminated.

Lester, who served as a Wesfarmers director for 13 years until 2008, sought damages for the lost rent, but the Culletons argued that carving out the lease from the purchase agreement was not “conceptually correct”.

The businessman vowed last week to pursue “all rights of enforcement” against Culleton, after The Australian reported that bankruptcy papers were served on the would-be senator in Armidale, NSW while he was in police custody over an outstanding warrant related to the larceny charge.

The warrant was issued after Culleton failed to show up for a previous hearing of the same matter, which concerns a tow-truck driver’s attempted repossession of his hire car.

An Armidale policy duty officer, Inspector Chris McKinnon, said Culleton had been served with some papers while he was in custody in Armidale police station.

Culleton, however, denied he had been handed any documents. “I can emphatically tell you I was not served or handed bankruptcy papers or paperwork while I was in Armidale, and nor would I expect to be,” he told The Australian.

Even if he succeeded in serving bankruptcy papers on his adversary in Armidale, there is a process he must navigate before Culleton is actually declared bankrupt.

In the meantime, One Nation continues to agitate for a bank royal commission.

A tale of two cities

Organisers of the inaugural Collab/Collide fintech conference, which aims to be the biggest industry event in the country, chose Melbourne as the host city for a simple reason — to show that fintech is a national pursuit and not confined to the Sydney CBD.

That’s despite the Stone & Chalk incubator’s dominance of the headlines.

Some Melbourne-istas would say the location is also a triumph of good coffee over bad and substance over style, but this column wouldn’t be so churlish. Apparently, there’s also no truth to the rumour that Collab/Collide has been scheduled for November because it’s the same month that Sydney hosts StartCon.

It would feed the continuing rivalry between the nation’s two biggest cities, exemplified in Melbourne’s claim last year that it had snaffled StartCon, only to have Sydney execute a reverse snaffle and win it back.

Last January, NSW Innovation Minister Victor Dominello called for “maturity to take control” of the continuing rivalry. “Competition is so 20th century — in the innovation space, particularly, collaboration is key,” he said.

Dominello was responding to a tweet by his opposite number in Victoria, the ambitious Philip Dalidakis, which said: “We don’t mind NSW copying (the Victorian Government’s) start-up strategy. Just don’t expect us to slow down for you to catch up.”

The truth is Collab/Collide won’t conflict with StartCon because the former is scheduled for early November, instead of late in the month for the latter.

Collab-Collide also overlaps with the Spring Racing Carnival, which is expected to help attract international speakers of the calibre of global fintech influencer Chris Gledhill — co-founder and CEO of the blockchain-inspired British lender Secco Bank.

Stuart Stoyan, founder and chief executive of marketplace lender MoneyPlace, said the conference would bring together fintechs and corporates to define the future of fintech. The name itself, he said, was a nod to the perennial debate on fintech’s role.

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