Federal election 2016: anti-bank farmer Rod Culleton nears Senate

A farmer who spearheaded a rural revolt against the banking industry is frontrunner to win final Senate spot in WA.

‘These financial corporations are acting above the law,’ says Senate candidate Rod Culleton. Picture: Colin Murty.

An outspoken farmer who has spearheaded a rural revolt against the banking industry after being “evicted” from his land has emerged as the surprise frontrunner to win the final Senate spot in Western Australia.

Rod Culleton, a candidate for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, told The Australian yesterday that if elected, he would use the Senate to campaign against the “financial terrorism” of banks and to push for a moratorium on farm closures.

The long-time Nationals voter said he decided to stand for One Nation after an approach from Ms Hanson, and because he believed the Nationals had become “the lapdogs of the Liberals” and had failed to stand up for rural people.

Mr Culleton was a wheat and sheep farmer in Williams, 160km southeast of Perth, until the ANZ Bank foreclosed on his property in 2013. He now represents other farmers who had loans with Landmark, an investment scheme set up by the Australian Wheat Board and taken over by ANZ in 2010.

Mr Culleton claims farmers were forced to default on their loans after ANZ got them to sign loan documents with changed terms and conditions.

He said many had committed suicide after losing their farms, ­although recently the bank had agreed to negotiate and some farmers had much of their debt wiped. “What I have witnessed is the carnage that ANZ Bank and other financiers around Australia have left behind,” he said.

“This needs a voice in parliament, and that’s why we are now going to the parliamentary floor to finish the fight.

“We don’t call it fin­ancial bullying — we call it financial terrorism. These financial corporations are acting above the law.”

Mr Culleton said he had studied One Nation’s policies and ­supported them. While some ­appeared controversial, he ­believed Ms Hanson had “hit the nail on the head”.

“Pauline Hanson came to ask me to run; she has got a very, very good team around her,” he said.

University of Notre Dame senior politics lecturer Martin Drum said Mr Culleton would be considered the favourite at this stage to claim the 12th Senate spot in WA, ahead of Liberal David Johnston and the Nationals’ Kado Muir.

Mr Culleton has half a quota, with preferences to be allocated.

For the Labor Party, former senator Louise Pratt is likely to be elected, joining Sue Lines, Glenn Sterle and Pat Dodson. Greens senator Scott Ludlam has been returned, and his colleague Rachel Siewert is considered likely to win.

The Liberal Party’s Senate numbers in WA will drop from six to five, given Senator Johnston’s failure to win a spot. The federal political career of Palmer United Party’s Dio Wang is over after he polled 0.4 per cent of the vote.

ANZ declined to comment.