One Nation Senator Compares Banks To Nazi Gas Chambers

    "ANZ bank ... said 'Come take a shower,' and gassed them."

    Embattled One Nation senator Rodney Culleton said ANZ bank asked farmers to "'come take a shower' and gassed them", during a press conference calling for a royal commission into banks.

    Brandishing a bundle of files that he said was "irrefutable evidence" that ANZ bank misled a parliamentary banking inquiry earlier this year, Culleton said prime minister Malcolm Turnbull "cannot turn his back on the royal commission".

    "This will show that the ANZ bank came in and misled the farmers. In actual fact, said, 'Come take a shower', and gassed them," Culleton said.

    The press conference, which ran for approximately 50 minutes, featured several farmers speaking about how their interactions with ANZ bank had led them to financial and emotional desperation.

    One, Brett Fallon, spoke about his suicide attempt by self-immolation after a loan became unmanageable.

    He told the press conference his financial problems made him feel isolated from friends, family, and community.

    "I was the loneliest bugger in the world," he said.

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    Culleton said there has been no movement on a royal commission since the banking inquiry was held in October. He will meet opposition leader Bill Shorten later on Tuesday to continue his crusade to hold the big banks to account.

    "They are treating us like morons," he said.

    He spoke about falling behind on payments on his own loan: "Some moron came down my driveway after 11 months, says he wants $6 million. I said, 'Ah that's OK. I'll just duck out to my farm ute, I've got it in the ashtray.'

    "This has been financial terrorism against our rural communities."

    Culleton also played a video to the room, on silent, that showed footage of trucks and farm equipment interspersed with clips of horse-racing.

    "That's my lead truck. That's the one I got in trouble with the key," he said, gesturing to the screen, in reference to a now-annulled larceny conviction for stealing a truck key, which has led to a High Court challenge to his eligibility to sit as a senator.

    The press conference became tense following Fallon's speech, in which he criticised the media for reporting on Culleton's larceny hearing.

    Fellow One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, who was seated behind the press with a "Don't tread on me" badge pinned to his lapel, frequently stood up to interject.

    Roberts asked journalist David Crowe "What is YOUR name?" after Crowe asked farmer Brett Fallon what his name was.

    Culleton also hit out at the media for asking a question about the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill that the government is currently working to get through the Senate.

    UPDATE

    Senator Culleton has said his comments had been misinterpreted as a reference to the Holocaust, and he was instead talking about a mass gassing of sheep that occurred in Australia in the 1990s.

    “During senator Culleton’s press conference in Canberra last week – when he mentioned ‘gassing’ he was referring to the context of his maiden speech where 20 million sheep were gassed,” a spokesperson for Culleton told BuzzFeed News.

    In the speech, Culleton spoke about visiting a farm only to discover a running petrol motor being used as “an improvised gassing plant” after the government ordered a cull.

    “The farmers were running sheep into the back of semi tippers, rolling the tarps over the top, shutting the back tailgates and gassing the young sheep to death—under instructions from the then government! I vomited over the fence, as a lot of the sheep appeared to be still clinging on to life,” he told the Senate.