Former One Nation senator Rod Culleton is having quite a time lately, isn't he? After facing larceny and bankruptcy cases, having to front the High Court in a case over whether he's even eligible to be a senator, and a very public and very acrimonious bust-up with the party that got him elected in the first place and its leader Pauline Hanson, the Western Australian man was taken to hospital on Tuesday after an altercation outside a Perth court.
Footage has since emerged showing Culleton tossing off his jacket and squaring up to throw down fisticuffs with the man who was trying to serve him bankruptcy papers.
Culleton was initially feared to have suffered a broken wrist after coming into contact with a man outside the court, but after being taken to hospital, was cleared of serious injury. The other man was alleged to be Anthony Fels, a former WA state politician who has been trying to gain endorsement as a One Nation candidate in the upcoming state election. On Sunrise on Wednesday morning, Hanson denied Fels had been officially endorsed.
Fels had reportedly been trying to serve Culleton bankruptcy papers, which the senator refused to take. A scuffle occurred which left Culleton lying on the ground, whereafter Fels was seen to drop the papers on him. Culleton soon got up, throwing off his jacket and trying to confront Fels.
In a later press conference given on Wednesday, Culleton denied he was squaring up to fight anyone at all, claiming he removed his jacket because he was constrained and needed to protect his family.
"I actually didn't quite know what was going on at the time but I didn't shape up, I took it off because I wanted to protect my family. I didn't know, it could have been people being stabbed," he said.
"If that's the way I shape up, I'd get the biggest flogging in every fight I went into because, if you've got to shape up, you know, that was not shaping up."
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