"A lot of people are not here today - they're in cemeteries," said Senator Rod Culleton, mounting his latest demand for a royal commission into the treatment by banks of farmers and rural business people.
A gaunt fellow with his pants tucked into high boots was there, however, all but back from the dead.
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Brett Fallon's last hope
Brett Fallon once owned a string of cane and beef properties in Queensland and after a bank came and took it all away, he poured petrol over himself and walked into his open cooking fire.
His name is Brett Fallon, who once owned a string of cane and beef properties in Queensland and who poured petrol over himself and walked into his open cooking fire in 2013 after a bank came and took it all away.
Mr Fallon, whose body will never heal properly, is one of the more prominent voices among those numerous casualties from the bush who have lost everything and blame it on the banks, and specifically the ANZ.
Their grievances go back to a period from 2009 when the ANZ bought a loans book off Landmark Operations and began foreclosing on farmers who missed repayments.
"I was the loneliest person in the world when I came out of hospital [after months in a coma and more months of treatment for burns]. The only people who care about us are the so-called lunatics in the Senate," said Mr Fallon, referring to One Nation senators Culleton, from Western Australia, and Malcolm Roberts, who had arranged the press conference in Parliament House on Tuesday at which he and others told their stories in a campaign for a royal commission.
"Rodney Culleton has been through the same pain as the rest of us."
Senator Culleton's status remains in doubt because he had been convicted of a larceny charge — a crime carrying a sentence of one year or more — at the time of the July 2 election. The conviction, which relates to the theft of a $7.50 tow truck key after he tried to stop a truckie repossessing a car he was leasing, has since been annulled.
Senator Culleton has been at war with ANZ after it foreclosed on his West Australian farm in 2013. Senator Culleton's company, Elite Grains, owes the bank $4.3 million, according to a creditors' report.
Whatever Senator Culleton's grievances, it was Brett Fallon whose passion stole the press conference on Monday.
He lives alone these days in the office building of the old Bowen stock saleyards in north Queensland, which he owned before the complex was repossessed.
"My family trust had to divest money to the ANZ to let me live in this tiny area of the saleyards," he said.
He declares he never borrowed any money from the ANZ bank as his portfolio grew from a small cane farm near Mackay to a cane and cattle property near Airley Beach and to two stations near Bowen and the saleyards.
"My loan was with Landmark, which understood normal seasonal conditions and always made arrangements to get you through tough periods.
"Then there was this corporate take-over by the ANZ."
He said his overdraft was terminated and he was subjected to punitive interest rates on other loans, though he declined to go further for legal reasons.
Police were sent to his property more and more frequently, he said, to support liquidators and to "seize things", including weapons.
"I had more police visits than Ned Kelly," he said.
Finally, he came to believe "the police might up their harassment level".
"They had taken all my guns, so I couldn't shoot myself, so I poured petrol over myself and walked into a fire.
"The world just disintegrates."
Mr Fallon claims he could not have owed any more than $3 million, and could have continued successfully repaying his loans if given the chance. He wants $20 million in compensation from the ANZ.
ANZ has conceded it made mistakes in how some customers were treated after it purchased Landmark.
The bank's deputy chief executive, Graham Hodges, told a parliamentary inquiry last year the bank only repossessed properties after monetary defaults and after "extensive" work with customers.
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