Craig Kelly (born 29 September 1963) is an Australian conservative politician who represented the division of Hughes as a Liberal Party (and later United Australia Party) MP from 2010 until his defeat at the 2022 federal election.
Kelly initially entered politics as a member of the Liberal Party, and was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 2010 federal election, as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Hughes. He resigned from the Liberal Party in February 2021 to sit on the crossbench as an independent politician, before announcing that he was joining the United Australia Party in August of that year, and was appointed as the party's leader.
Kelly has been widely criticised for spreading misinformation on social media. He has given a platform to numerous conspiracy theories, and has propagated climate change denial and falsehoods regarding COVID-19. By January 2020, Kelly's Facebook page had higher levels of engagement than either the Prime Minister or the Opposition Leader, leading The Sydney Morning Herald to call Kelly "one of Australia's most influential politicians on Facebook". Kelly is also a frequent guest on Sky News Australia.
On 27 February 2024, Kelly left the UAP to join Pauline Hanson's One Nation as the party's federal campaign director. He left the party in September of the same year. Kelly contested the 2025 federal election as the Libertarian Party's lead candidate for the Senate in New South Wales.
Early years and background Kelly was born in Sydney on 29 September 1963. He is one of four children born to Lawrence and Raima Kelly. He was educated at public schools.
After finishing high school Kelly worked for his parents as a furniture salesman and "export manager" at their furniture business DV Kelly Pty Ltd. The firm imported Asian furniture and onsold it to retailers like Harvey Norman, but financial troubles resulted in the Australian Taxation Office issuing wind-up orders in 2012, leaving creditors and employees owed over $4 million. The administrator's report suggested that Kelly may have been a de facto director of the company and thus be liable to be pursued for trading while insolvent. He stated that this was a "completely baseless allegation", and had previously stated in his maiden speech to parliament that he stopped working for the company in 2009 in order to run for parliament. However, Crikey subsequently reported that Kelly had signed himself as a director of the company on a number of documents related to a court case in New Zealand. He was registered as a director of three related companies – Homewares Depot, Valentino Franchising and Valentino Home Fashion – until March 2011.
Kelly established the now-defunct Southern Sydney Retailers Association, which he used as a platform to lobby the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.
Political career Member of the Liberal Party (2010-2021)
At age 46, Kelly was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Member for Hughes in 2010, which was considered a marginal seat. He served on the Standing Appropriations and Administration Australian House of Representatives committee from 2010 to 2013. In 2012, Kelly was referred to the parliamentary privileges committee over a range of allegations, including a failure to declare on his register of interests his directorship of several companies linked to his family's bankrupt company, which owed millions to creditors and staff. The then Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese, alleged Kelly failed to disclose his directorship of three entities which he had not officially relinquished until March 2011, eight months after the 2010 election. Kelly denied the allegations and the Parliamentary Privileges Committee did not pursue the matter further.
Kelly and the President of the NSW Commandos Association, Barry Grant, fought Labor government cuts in the 2012 budget to entitlements for defence personnel to travel home during holiday times. Kelly and Grant put together a petition in favour of reinstating the entitlements that was circulated Australia-wide, attracting well over 10,000 signatures. With Kelly's help a disallowance motion was moved in the House of Representatives that forced the Labor government to reinstate the entitlements. This affected upwards of 22,000 service men and women.
In 2013, Kelly was nominated by then Opposition leader Tony Abbott as the representative of the Coalition on the bipartisan committee overseeing the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Kelly was the only sitting member of the House of Representatives with firsthand knowledge of raising a child with severe disabilities and said that he would use this experience in the position. Kelly also served on the Joint Standing Committee on Migration from 2013 to 2016.
In April 2014, Kelly spoke at an event commemorating the establishment in 1941 of the Independent State of Croatia, which was associated with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during the Second World War. A Croatian-language newspaper described Kelly's speech as conveying congratulations from Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Kelly subsequently described the speech he gave as condemning fascism and communism, and apologised for appearing to endorse the flag of the Independent State of Croatia.
Kelly served on the Joint Standing Committee on Law Enforcement from 2015, and he became the committee's chair in that same year. Speaking in relation to his position as chairman of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, Kelly proposed that signs at Mildura should warn drivers of an increased risk of car theft in the town. In the Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, September 2015, Kelly supported Tony Abbott as prime minister.
Kelly opposed the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal in 2015 and 2016, citing concerns about diesel air pollution. The project will enable "import-export freight travelling through Sydney to and from Port Botany to be transported on rail instead of the road network". The Intermodal Terminal began construction in 2017.
In the lead-up to the 2016 election, the moderate faction of the Liberal party planned to challenge Kelly in his seat. Radio commentator Alan Jones threw his support behind Kelly, and Prime Minister Turnbull wrote a letter of endorsement, stating that Kelly was one of the government's "most consistent performers" and that Kelly had a "fine reputation". Tony Abbott had also "pushed aside moderate challengers" to Kelly when Abbott was Prime Minister. The redistribution of Hughes was thought to strengthen Kelly's hold on the seat, and Kelly was returned with a margin greater than 9 points, despite a small swing against him.
Kelly travelled to Azerbaijan for a week to observe the 2016 referendum, listing the trip on his statement of members' interests. Kelly returned to Azerbaijan to observe the presidential election in 2018, praising the use of photographic ID to obtain a ballot paper.
Kelly was the chair of a parliamentary inquiry into methamphetamine, and has urged his colleagues to look at the drug policy of Portugal. Kelly opposes drug checking.
Kelly was expected to be challenged for preselection for his seat for the 2019 Australian federal election, and former prime minister Tony Abbott endorsed Kelly. Again being challenged by the moderate faction of the Liberal party, Kelly reportedly threatened to join the crossbench as an independent if he did not win preselection, but stated that he has confidence in the preselection committee.
On 18 July 2018, Kelly commented on Sky News, in response to a Facebook post by the father of three children killed aboard MH17: 'if some of the things that Russia has gotten away with in the past has to be slightly looked over, well I'm sorry that's the price that we have to pay sometimes to have good relations going forward'.
In the Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, 2018 on 21 August, Kelly confirmed he voted for Peter Dutton to become leader of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party and therefore Prime Minister. In the second spill on 24 August, Kelly was one of the first few to sign the petition calling for a party room meeting to vote on the leadership of the Liberal Party. While he voted for Dutton in the second spill, Kelly stated that he would throw his support behind Scott Morrison. Kelly criticised Julia Banks' decision to retire following the spill in a Sky News interview, defending politics as a "rough-and-tumble game."
Kelly was critical of AGL's 2018 announcement that the coal-fired Liddell Power Station would be closed in 2022, stating that it was anti-competitive of AGL not to consider selling Liddell before retiring it. As of August 2018, Kelly's electoral conference had raised $5,000 of a $75,000 fundraising target for the Liberal Party. Kelly was approached to run for the electoral district of East Hills, a state seat, but declined. Scott Morrison reportedly intervened in the pre-selection process for Hughes, indicating that he wanted Kelly to run unchallenged, but local branch members argued that as Kelly was an important figure in the August leadership spills, he should go. The pre-selection contest was reportedly being delayed by the party as long as possible, and Kelly was advised by former Liberal Party presidential candidate John Ruddick to quit the party and run as an independent. Kelly affirmed that he intends to remain in the Liberal Party, although he refused to rule out a move to the crossbench if he lost pre-selection. Morrison reportedly floated using state executive powers to save Kelly from a pre-selection challenge, taking the decision-making process away from grassroots members. This has been described by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as unacceptable. Turnbull dismissed comparisons to his own 2016 intervention to save Kelly, and cited recent campaigns in NSW to allow grassroots members more say in pre-selection contests as the reason for his intervention. When the government moved to head off a dispute by using state executive powers to automatically endorse sitting members, Turnbull launched a failed intervention to prevent the outcome, hoping Kelly, a Dutton backer, would be ousted. When Turnbull's representations were leaked to the press, Turnbull confirmed them, and the intervention made it harder for the moderates to do anything other than tacitly re-endorse Kelly. Kelly stated that he was unaware of a job offer being made to his challenger, Kent Johns, on the condition that Johns drop out of the pre-selection race. During the 2019 election campaign, there was a grassroots campaign to unseat Kelly, "Hughes Deserves Better". They used dinosaur suits to draw attention to Kelly's views on climate change. Kelly was returned with a small swing towards him.
In October 2018, Kelly suggested that the fuel excise should be reduced by 10 cents per litre, and that divestiture powers should apply to the petrol industry.