COLOURFUL former Western Australian One Nation senator Rod Culleton has received a big boost in promoting his Great Australian Party (GAP), doing a podcast with celebrity chef Pete Evans, who boasts one of Australia's largest social media fan bases.
Mr Evans has become an increasingly polarising figure due to controversial views on topics such as COVID-19 and world politics but is still immensely popular in certain quarters, with a whopping 1.5 million likes for his Facebook page.
More recently his Evolve With Pete Evans podcast has been popular, with a format of Mr Evans interviewing guests on topics such as vaccinations and the impact of glyphosate.
The widely viewed exposure is a publicity dream for the GAP, getting to spread its message to a much wider audience than its own relatively modest social media reach of 21,000 page likes on Facebook.
Mr Culleton was interviewed about the GAP, formed in 2018, his push to get the Royal Commission into banks under way and his desire for constitutional reform.
He is well known in rural Australia for his short, ill-fated stint as a Federal senator, which he commenced in late 2016.
Mr Culleton was sworn in as a One Nation member before a fall-out with Pauline Hanson led to his resignation from the party and him sitting as an independent.
From there he was ruled by the Federal Court to be bankrupt and thus ineligible to sit in Parliament, a ruling he contested, but that was upheld.
During this time the High Court also found Mr Culleton was ineligible for Parliament due to a criminal matter in NSW.
The GAP was set up and other candidates stood for election at the 2019 Federal election, although none were elected.
Some of the GAP's policies include removing personal income tax, nationalising the Commonwealth Bank and abolishing the Family Court of Australia in favour of a tribunal.
Mr Evans has become linked with increasingly fringe organisations and radical ideas since shooting to prominence as a restauranteur and judge on Channel 7's popular My Kitchen Rules with some accusing him of peddling conspiracy theories on issues such as 5G.