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by Bryce Corbett

Never mind question time. Never mind the passage of the government's Registered Organisations Bill. The big story down Canberra way on Wednesday was the titanic tussle between One Nation's Pauline Hanson and her headline-grabbing colleague and High-Court habitue Senator (for now) Rod Culleton.

Seems the man could not move this week without barnstorming North Queensland MP Bob Katter shadowing him, tweeting his support at every opportunity, and sparking speculation the duo may form some sort of official political alliance should the fractured relationship with Hanson finally shatter.

And why not? The links between the two men's offices already run deep, to wit, Margaret Menzel, Culleton's colourful chief-of-staff. A former cane farmer from Ayr in Far North Queensland, Menzel's husband Max was a state Nationals MP and sat in the parliamentary chamber with Katter back when Joh Bjelke-Petersen ran the show. Ah, the good old days!

Before joining Culleton's office, Menzel (who was famously on the receiving end of Hanson advisor James Ashby's underhanded mobile phone toss earlier this week) toiled as a sugar industry campaigner, co-ordinating the Sugar Industry Reform Committee, and stood for office as an independent in 2004.

So how and why, we wondered, did a North Queensland girl end up working in Perth-based Senator Culleton's office?

"Rodney and I met in Winton," she told us. "He was there advocating for banking victims and so was I. I moved across the country [to Perth] to work for a man of great integrity."

So Bob had nothing to do with her current employ, we asked. "I worked with Bob Katter in the sugar industry," Madge replied cryptically.

When not dodging Ashby's mobile or receiving long-stemmed, pink, make-up roses from him, Menzel manages Culleton's diary: a job that, according to reports (denied by her), means keeping her boss from having any contact with his party leader.

How very cosy.