Federal Court throws out AEC's lawsuit against Craig Kelly

• By Avi Yemini

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Allegations that Craig Kelly violated electoral laws were dismissed in Federal Court with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) ordered to pay costs.

The accusations centred around the alleged misuse of campaign materials in the lead-up to the 2022 federal election.

The AEC had pursued legal action against Kelly, the former representative for the NSW seat of Hughes.

Their lawsuit argued that the United Australia Party's posters authorised by Kelly were non-compliant, lacking sufficient visibility for all required authorisations.

The AEC maintained that the authorisation line, specifying the approving party and their location, was printed too small, hence unable to be read by voters from a reasonable distance.

However, Justice Steven Rares found the lawsuit wanting, and not only dismissed the case but also ordered the AEC to cover Kelly's legal costs.

CRAIG KELLY 2 v. AEC 0

I won. The AEC‘s case against me has been dismissed with costs.

The AEC have acted disgracefully pursuing a frivolous, malicious & politicised prosecution.

I call on the AEC Commission Tom Rogers to either accept responsibility and resign, or sack the… pic.twitter.com/y0m8aMCNS0

— Craig Kelly (@CKellyUAP) July 26, 2023

Kelly announced his victory on Elon Musk's X platform, accusing the AEC of a "disgraceful", "malicious", and "politicised" prosecution.

He called for AEC Commission Tom Rogers to either resign or sack those responsible for the "outrage".

Kelly emphasised the financial cost to taxpayers and the AEC's repeated legal failures against him, insisting they owe an apology for their actions.