One Nation's WA senator Rod Culleton has invoked Martin Luther King jnr, Dennis Lillee and Gough Whitlam in his maiden speech to Parliament.
In a teary tirade delivered on Wednesday night, Culleton used his speech to reveal he's a better bowler than Lillee when it comes to aiming "at the middle stump on constitutional issues" and has a love of car metaphors.
Best known for having a larceny conviction annulled, Culleton's speech took Australia through how and why after 35 years as a Nationals voter he jumped ship to Pauline Hanson's house of social cruelty.
His speech gives the major parties a potential insight into why so many Australians eschewed the major parties at this year's election.
According to Culleton, the answer is ANZ.
Culleton told Parliament it was his experience of losing two properties following a dispute with the bank that thrust him into the bosom of One Nation.
"Had the Nationals and other major parties been doing their jobs for farming families and their communities today through proper representation, our farming industries would still be vibrant," Culleton said.
Culleton recently lost a legal case against ANZ with Supreme Court of WA judge Kenneth Martin finding he was unable to "detect a whiff of misconduct" by the blue pillar in dealing with the Culletons. Probably why Culleton doesn't think highly of judges.
Still ANZ better beware.
"The hunted has now become the hunter," Culleton told Parliament.
"And well may we say God save the Queen, because nothing will save these bankers! Thank you."
Splendid pastures
Former Citi chief executive Stephen Roberts and his wife Robyn are trying to sell their sprawling estate in Avoca, NSW.
The sale comes as Roberts, who was chief company officer for Citi's Australia office for 12 years, nestles into his post-investment banking retirement.
According to ASIC records, Roberts stepped down from Citi's Australian boards on June 20 after only being named chairman in March.
CBD hears the property has just come on the market.
There's been some suggestion the magnificent pile could fetch more than $10 million.
And why not. At 90 minutes to the Sydney CBD and 45 minutes to the coast, the property boasts a wine cellar, huge barn and loft accommodation. It is also replete with a 20-metre indoor pool, gym, sauna, tennis court and boules court.
Interest buyers might want to give Michael Maloney at Richardson and Wrench Bowral a call.
News respite
A US judge had thrown out a class action brought against Rupert Murdoch, his son Jamesand News Corp's recently reinstated UK boss Rebekah Brooks over the company's phone tapping scandal.
The action filed in New York by aggrieved shareholders in 2011 had alleged the company had engaged in securities fraud through a scheme to "conceal the existence and extent of illegal news-gathering practices at the News of the World and The Sun".
There's little dispute that News Corp's The Sun and News of the World engaged in some pretty disgraceful behaviour in the rush to get yarns and have been raked over the coals for it in what Rupert described as "the most humbling day of my life".
However, just last week Judge Paul Gardephe in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York put an end to the action that has been running for five years.
The action related to a extended "class period", which means that any shareholder who bought shares between July 2009 and July 2011 could share in the windfall.
But it all came to naught after the court upheld News Corp's request to have the matter dismissed.
Judge Gardephe found the New York court did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim against the company as the subsidiary responsible for the scandal was a UK business and "nearly all the alleged misstatements were made before the onset of the alleged class period".
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