The trial of former One Nation senator Rod Culleton, who allegedly breached Western Australia's hard border last year, has been adjourned after beginning in farcical circumstances when the accused requested the magistrate take a sobriety test.
Mr Culleton and his co-accused, 57-year-old Roslyn Jane Stewart, are on trial in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court for allegedly failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act in March last year.
The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 12 months in jail or a fine of up to $50,000.
The pair entered the courtroom and had not even approached the bar table before they began to test the patience of Magistrate Kevin Tavener.
They repeatedly refused to identify themselves when asked if they were the people named on the charge sheet, and only took a seat after Ms Stewart had exclaimed three times that "we do not recognise the jurisdiction of this court".
Mr Culleton unsuccessfully attempted to make constitutional arguments, claiming the Eyre Highway was a Commonwealth jurisdiction, but the magistrate responded repeatedly that he did not understand Mr Culleton's arguments.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Magistrate Tavener said.
"Jurisdiction goes to the heart of the matter and whether WA Police have prosecutorial powers to go forward," Mr Culleton added.
Mr Culleton went on to say that he had not entered a plea, despite appearing at numerous pre-trial hearings last year.
"I am a Commonwealth officer," Mr Culleton said at one stage.
"You're not a Commonwealth officer … you're a private citizen," the magistrate replied.
"Maybe what I did in parliament then is just nonsense," Mr Culleton responded, before being told to take a seat and be quiet.
After these remarks, Ms Stewart, who told the court she was a registered nurse, took issue with the magistrate.
"In my opinion, you appear not to be sober," Ms Stewart told Magistrate Tavener.
"Can we request a sobriety test?
"You are determining my future and I want to know you're sober."
"Is that something we can request?" Mr Culleton asked.
The magistrate appeared annoyed at the comment but was measured in his response.
"There has to be a filter on what you say in court, Ms Stewart, but it appears you have none," he said.
"Don't insult me again … there is a limit to what I will tolerate."
Questions about vaccination status
Once the prosecution was able to begin putting forward its case, the court heard that Mr Culleton and Ms Stewart had both failed to declare their vaccination status to WA Police at the state's border with South Australia last year.
The prosecution is calling three police officers as witnesses, alleging the accused entered WA without valid G2G passes.
The court heard Mr Culleton had tried unsuccessfully to compel Premier Mark McGowan and Governor Chris Dawson, a former police commissioner, to testify, and complained that his witnesses were "rejected".
"You have no grounds to call them," Magistrate Tavener said.
Body-worn camera footage played in court showed the pair travelling in the former senator's Great Australian Party campaign bus at the Eucla quarantine checkpoint.
Eucla Police Station's then officer-in-charge, former sergeant Russell Chamberlain, could be heard telling them they both required a valid G2G pass, which at the time required them to be vaccinated, to legally enter WA.
The footage shot by the arresting officer, Detective Senior Constable Daniel Sanders, shows police gave them the option to turn around and advised the pair they would be arrested if they entered WA.
Under cross examination, Senior Constable Sanders was asked why he did not show the pair his face.
"I was wearing my mask because I didn't want to get COVID," he said.
Dealing with a 'tense situation'
Speaking via videolink from Shark Bay, Mr Chamberlain said he had served for a total 12 years as the officer-in-charge at Eucla.
The recently retired police sergeant told court it was standard procedure to give anyone who did not have a valid G2G pass the opportunity to turn around and go back to South Australia to avoid prosecution.
He said that the group Mr Culleton was travelling with was threatening to bring "hundreds of people" to Eucla to protest their treatment.
"It caused a bit of chaos and concern with hundreds of people threatening to come out there," Mr Chamberlain said.
Mr Culleton asked Mr Chamberlain about a conversation they shared where he claimed the police officer told him to take a bush track and avoid the quarantine checkpoint.
"I did say that in jest … because it was quite a tense situation and we didn't want any confrontation," Mr Chamberlain said.
"I remember saying why don't you wait it out on the South Australian side because it looked like it was finally coming to an end."
Mr Culleton also questioned Mr Chamberlain about the exact location of the WA border, claiming he was in SA when he was arrested.
But Mr Chamberlain said he knew the exact position, which ran "on an angle through the quarantine centre", adding that he had "double-checked" when WA police installed an administration building on the border during the pandemic.
"I needed to know where the border was and I've always gone off the Landgate maps," Mr Chamberlain said.
"When I had the conversation with Mr Culleton, he was in WA. He said he wasn't going to return to South Australia and was going to continue onto his farm."
An 'invasion of privacy'
Mr Chamberlain told the court that the accused believed it was an "invasion of privacy" to provide their vaccination status.
Ms Stewart questioned Mr Chamberlain about where her private medical information would have been stored if she had handed it over on a hard copy of the G2G application, saying her concerns justified a "reasonable excuse".
"It is stored in a police station and only police officers or a customer services officer could access it, and only if they wanted to look hard enough," he said.
Mr Chamberlain said he spoke with Inspector Craig Davis, who is listed to give evidence in the trial, before the pair were arrested and released under summons.
"We needed to get approval from a senior police office before we could prosecute," Mr Chamberlain said.
He added that he was a special constable with SA Police for matters on the other side of the border and that the accused had been "compliant" when he first spoke with them.
Mr Culleton initially sat as a One Nation senator and then as an independent after the 2016 election, before the High Court ruled in 2017 that his election was invalid due to a conviction.
In 2019, he founded the Great Australian Party and ran unsuccessfully for a senate seat at last year's federal election.
The trial, originally set down for one day, has been adjourned until June 19.
