Federal MP Craig Kelly denies threatening man in dinosaur suit during campaign

Drama is not extinct on the campaign trail, with police investigating an alleged altercation between a federal MP and a man in a dinosaur suit at a south Sydney train station on Wednesday morning.

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Drama is not extinct on the campaign trail, with police investigating an alleged altercation between a federal MP and a man in a dinosaur suit at a south Sydney train station on Wednesday morning.

Sutherland Shire police are investigating allegations Hughes Liberal MP Craig Kelly told an activist dressed as a dinosaur while handing out climate action flyers at Sutherland train station to “f … off”.

“Police from Sutherland Police Area Command are investigating after a report was made regarding an altercation near Sutherland Railway Station this morning (Wednesday, 1 May, 2019),” a police spokeswoman told the St George Shire Standard.

“There have been no reports of injury and inquiries continue.”

The dinosaur demonstrators interrupted the federal MP as he handed out climate action flyers. Picture: Supplied

Police are investigating allegations of an altercation between the man dressed in the dinosaur and Craig Kelly.

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Mr Kelly flatly denied threatening the dinosaur to the St George Shire Standard/Daily Telegraph.

“How could I punch a dinosaur in the face?” the conservative MP asked.

“He came up right behind me while I was handing out flyers and I turned around and told him to rack off and get out of my space.”

Mr Kelly was greeting local constituents ahead of the election when the alleged incident took place.

“We should be free to go about our jobs and not have people coming up and intimidating us,” he said.

“I was handing out flyers to the public, as every Member of Parliament does, and we should be free to do that without people dressed up in some kind of outfit sneaking up and trying to harass us in such a way that should be condemned,” he said.

Liberal’s Craig Kelly has denied threatening the dinosaur. Picture: Mick Tsikas

The man in the dinosaur suit and a colleague who witnessed the incident have both made a statement at Miranda police station alleging Mr Kelly made a threat of violence after seeing the T-Rex wearing a sign reading “Craig Kelly Denialosaurus”.

The climate activist dinosaur has been a regular figure on the campaign trail in Mr Kelly’s southern Sydney seat, popping up at pre-polling booths, train stations and even the local netball courts to advocate for climate action.

Mr Kelly is a vocal climate change opponent who has used images of Sydney’s Fort Denison through history to claim sea levels are not rising. He once argued renewable energy was causing child drownings because it was increasing the cost of operating swimming pools, which was then reflected in the price of swimming lessons.

The man in the T-rex suit claimed Mr Kelly made a threat of violence after seeing their signs. Picture: Supplied

“If we raise the cost of electricity in this country, the burden is paid by those (learn-to-swim) centres that pay the electricity bills and it’s higher costs for swimming lessons,” Mr Kelly told Parliament in 2016.

He concluded later on Facebook: “By making swimming lessons more expensive, some parents are going to be unable to afford them — the result (being) less children having basic swimming and water safety skills, placing them at greater risk of drowning.”

Earlier this week, Mr Kelly doubled down on his renewable energy opposition, referring to advocates as “completely delusional”.

“Anyone with even a basic grasp of economics and engineering understands that the belief that you can run a modern economic (sic) on solar panels, wind turbines and batteries is completely delusional,” Mr Kelly wrote on Facebook.