United Australia Party leader Craig Kelly concedes Hughes seat

Clive Palmer has dubbed him the next PM, but the leader of the United Australia Party made an eleventh-hour admission about his political future. Read what he said.

Controversial MP Craig Kelly will be looking for a new job on Sunday as his “long shot” attempt to retain his seat of Hughes in the federal election failed.

Mr Kelly was on the hustings on election day as he fought to scrape together any last minute votes for not only himself but the United Australia Party.

But Mr Kelly, who sensationally left the Liberal Party then joined the United Australia Party, conceded his seat after holding it for 12 years on Saturday night.

“We always knew it was going to be tough,” he said at his campaign party in Sutherland.

“The reality is it is very hard to get people to shift away from the major parties.

“We stood up for what we knew was right.

“I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever and I congratulate Jenny Ware from the Liberals.”

Former MP Craig Kelly is out of politics after he lost the seat of Hughes to his former party, the Liberals. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

Mr Kelly was sad to lose his job and wished he and the party had done better.

“But it was never about me and my seat of Hughes,” he said. “What we were trying to do was get the balance of power in one or more houses to try to make a difference in the next parliament.

“We wanted to make sure some of the decisions and legislation that went through this parliament and some that didn’t go through that should have had a chance in the next parliament.”

He said he gave leadership and confidence to the other 151 seats around the nation to show we “could give it a real shot”.

“I believe we fought the good fight. Sometimes you have to do what your conscious tells you to do and that is not easy in politics,” Mr Kelly said.

“I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I knew we would have an enormous pushback against us but I think history will show everything I said and argued for was correct.”

Leader of the United Australia Party Craig Kelly. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Earlier in the day Mr Kelly said he had been busy and began setting up the polling booths early in the morning.

He began his day at Sutherland North public school before going to Loftus and to Engadine West.

He will see out Saturday at another booth before hosting an event for his supporters and volunteers at a cafe in Sutherland.

When asked if he would be re-elected he was not confident.

“No doubt I am a very very long shot and an underdog,” he said.

“Hughes is a fairly strong traditional Liberal area and it takes a lot to change people’s voting patterns of decades.

“I felt like I had to give it a shot.

“The Liberal Party had abandoned many of the values they and I stood for when I signed up so I felt it wasn’t me leaving the party, it was the party leaving me.”

Mr Kelly said he had not been thinking about what was next in his career if he did not win the seat and would work it out in the coming days and weeks.

“One door closes and another opens,” he said.

Hughes polling booths in the Sutherland were popular on election day. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

Kelly is going up against six other candidates.

Liberal’s Jenny Ware, independent Georgia Steele, independent Linda Seymour, Labor’s Riley Campbell, Greens’ Peter Thompson and One Nation’s Narelle Seymour.

When speaking of his opponents Mr Kelly wished Liberal candidate Jenny Ware “all the best” but said she was a relatively unknown quantity.

However, he was much more critical of independent Georgia Steele claiming her platform was not in the “middle” but rather aligned with the Greens and she should have been upfront about it.

Craig Kelly slammed ‘teal independent’ Georgia Steele claiming she had not been upfront with her agenda.

Mr Kelly said while he was handing out ‘how to vote’ cards many people who had gone through the polling booth had not taken flyers and perhaps had done their homework beforehand.

“The results will be very interesting. In Hughes, I think we will get a result tonight. But perhaps not given the large number of postal votes cast.”

Mr Kelly said when he became the leader of the United Australia Party in February 2021 he knew that would take him away from campaigning in his electorate.

He said the role “absolutely” affected his chances of retaining his seat.

“There is no doubt that during an election campaign every minute that you are away from your electorate gives your opponents an advantage,” Mr Kelly said.

“I certainly understood that was part of the role, I’m not complaining.

“This was never just all about Craig Kelly winning his seat, this was about the United Australia Party having the best chance of getting the balance in one or both houses. That was what we were all working hard to do.

“Whether we achieve that is up in the air.”

Bangor Public School had a steady stream of voters go through the doors. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

Mr Kelly said that his top priority for Hughes, should he win, was pushing back against overdevelopment in the area. He said the rising house prices put pressure on the council to cram more units into small blocks of land.

Nationally he said the most important policy the UAP was stopping the mandate for workers to be vaccinated.

“I’ve always thought it was a terrible thing in a democratic society that your employer can force you to inject a substance into your body for you to keep your job,” he said before rejecting that the mandate was in the interest of public health claiming that had “never been proven”.