Peter Georgiou, the Western Australian One Nation Senator who replaced ousted bankrupt Rod Culleton, appears to be using a Senate inquiry to continue his brother-in-law’s pursuit of the ANZ Bank over a multimillion-dollar debt Culleton failed to pay in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Earlier this year, the government allowed One Nation to establish a Senate Select Committee on Lending to Primary Production Customers, although the committee, chaired by Rothschild conspiracy theorist Malcolm Roberts, has struggled to get submissions and witnesses. Both Culleton and one of Roberts’ own staff have appeared before the committee at various points, to the annoyance of committee members with genuine records of scrutinising the banks, such as Nationals Senator John Williams.

But the inquiry appears to be being used by Georgiou to pursue Culleton’s long-running personal dispute with the ANZ bank over a $4.3 million loan that Culleton refused to pay back. Culleton is married to Georgiou’s sister Ioanna. Georgiou used the inquiry to place over 40 questions on notice to ANZ over the dispute in August. The questions include a wide range of allegations against ANZ and defences of the behaviour of the Culletons. Many of ANZ’s answers reject Georgiou/Culleton’s claims as untrue or decline to answer questions because they’re actually about the Culletons, not the bank.

 

There’s also the question of what happens if Malcolm Roberts is turfed from the Senate by the High Court on Friday. Who will chair the remainder of the inquiry? Williams is deputy chair, but at the most recent hearing last Friday, Pauline Hanson joined the committee, although she appeared to struggle with some of the basic concepts being discussed. Hanson taking over as chair should provide some more comedy gold from a inquiry that is already rather eccentric. But whether taxpayers would find the uses to which their money is being put so amusing, is less clear.