Regardless of whether or not you sympathise with former One Nation Senator Rod Culleton, the Western Australian is right in saying an apparent demand he pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages, staff salaries and expenses is a bad look.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He argues he stood for the 2016 election in good faith, was sworn in and went on to do his job as a Senator for the better part of a year.
Mr Culleton's election was declared invalid by the High Court in February 2017 because at the time of the 2016 poll he had a conviction against his name over the theft of keys to a tow truck.
That conviction related to a 2014 repossession dispute at Guyra in NSW.
It was overturned when he pleaded guilty to larceny in the Armidale Magistrate's Court last October.
When Mr Culleton received a letter from the Finance Department saying he was legally obligated to pay back not just his own salary but the salaries of his staffers and all other associated expenses the aggrieved undischarged bankrupt went public this week.
While his current financial status suggests the authorities have Buckley's chance of seeing any of the money, Mr Culleton argues the very threat of such action will dissuade "little people" without the backing of a major party from running for Parliament or the Senate in the future.
"What its doing is setting really bad case precedent that anyone that wants to get out and do their best and have a voice for their country, this is what can happen," he said.
Mr Culleton, who resigned from One Nation after a falling out with Pauline Hanson in December 2016, believes - rightly or wrongly - he has been singled out for a personal attack.
This is despite the fact Bob Day, the former Family First Senator who resigned in November 2016 over the liquidation of his building companies and was found to be ineligible to be a Senator by the High Court on the grounds of an "indirect pecuniary interest" has received a similar letter.
While Mr Culleton's threat to take his case to the Privy Council in London appears problematic given that door was bolted in 1986, his paranoia is understandable.
Cross bench senators and micro-party members have never been the flavour of the month with the major political parties.
Paul Keating's reference to the Senate as "unrepresentative swill" is part of Australian folklore and John Howard famously called the chamber "the house of obstruction".
In 2016 Malcolm Turnbull justified his Senate voting reforms, which did not work out the way he planned, on the grounds microparties had been gaming the system.
Scott Ryan, the special minister of state who will have the final say over whether or not Mr Day and Mr Culleton will receive bills for hundreds of thousands of dollars, needs to clear the air by announcing his intentions as soon as possible.
