One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says she can no longer work with her Senate colleague Rod Culleton, portraying him as an egomaniac obsessed with publicity and incapable of teamwork in an extraordinary outburst on live radio.
Senator Culleton's defiance of party policy on the backpacker tax, which saw him support Labor's preferred rate of 10.5 per cent, appears to have been the last straw in the rapidly disintegrating relationship between the two One Nation senators.
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Pauline Hanson pays out on her One Nation senate colleague Rod Culleton, saying he's not a team player and the attention has gone to his head.
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One Nation, two egos
Pauline Hanson pays out on her One Nation senate colleague Rod Culleton, saying he's not a team player and the attention has gone to his head.
"He's not a team player at all. We can't work with him, you can't reason with him," Senator Hanson told Sydney's 2GB radio on Tuesday. "You can't give him advice, he runs his own race. That's not teamwork. It's just absolutely ridiculous."
Senator Hanson said she was still "angry" her colleague and Victorian senator Derryn Hinch had squibbed on the deal she struck with Treasurer Scott Morrison for a 15 per cent backpacker tax, instead supporting Labor's lower rate.
"They're all over the bloody place," she said. "They wouldn't have a clue what the hell they're doing."
The One Nation leader said that while she had been in the political game 20 years, Senator Culleton had freshly "come on the scene" after being uninterested in politics when she first approached him to run ahead of the July election.
"He loves the limelight, he loves the publicity," she said. "I think the whole lot has gone to his head."
The two had seemingly kissed and made up a fortnight ago following an incident in which Senator Culleton sent a threatening letter to a Queensland magistrate, which has been referred to police as a potential perversion of the course of justice.
But Senator Hanson revealed on Tuesday she cannot even hold a civil conversation with her West Australian colleague, treating radio listeners to her own impression of Senator Culleton.
"I start talking to him, laying down some ground rules, and then he says 'stop, stop, don't go any further otherwise I'm outta here'," she told 2GB's Ray Hadley. "You can't have a decent conversation with someone telling you 'stop' because they don't want to hear these things.
"He would make a very good senator if he could only take direction. I don't think he likes my authority."
The startling outburst will put pressure on Senator Culleton to quit One Nation if he is successful in defeating a High Court challenge to his eligibility to sit in Parliament. He was convicted of larceny over a $7.50 tow truck key at the time of the election, but it was later annulled.
Senator Hanson said she was confident One Nation would retain the seat on a recount, risking the election of Senator Culleton's brother-in-law Peter Georgiou in his place. "So we're on the same merry-go-round," she said.
She said the other One Nation senators – Malcolm Roberts of Queensland and Brian Burston of NSW – also found it "very hard" to work with Senator Culleton.
"I'll deal with this – there are tougher things than Rod Culleton in the world," she said. "I wish he would just rein himself in and become a team player."
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