Former Liberal MP and vocal COVID skeptic Craig Kelly has wheeled a pallet of fake money into Parliament House ahead of tonight’s Federal Budget and that’s not even the embarrassing part.
The publicity stunt was an attempt at illustrating Kelly’s objection to the trillion-dollar debt that Australia is heading towards.
Kelly alleged that one pallet, “stacked tight”, would be $100 million, asserting that we would need 10,000 pallets to properly illustrate the $1 trillion debt.
However, each of Kelly’s notes are printed to be “worth” $1 trillion. So, in actual reality, he’d only need one note to exemplify the debt.
“Wouldn’t you love to have this much money? Well you do!! This represents close to the $1 TRILLION of Federal Government net DEBT that YOU & future generations need to pay off,” he tweeted.
PRESS CONFERENCE – CRAIG KELLY MP – 9.30am Tues 11th May, Mural Hall, 2nd Floor Parliament House
Wouldn’t you love to have this much money ?
Well you do !!
This represents close to $1 TRILLION of Federal & State Government net DEBT that YOU & future generations need to pay off pic.twitter.com/ztKH5Wv9SD
— Craig Kelly MP (@CraigKellyMP) May 10, 2021
Yes, Craig, I would love to have a pallet of $1 trillion bills, thank you.
But the fact that Craig Kelly seemingly can’t do basic math isn’t the biggest issue at play here. To make matters worse, Kelly told 9News that the money was printed using his taxpayer-funded parliamentary printing allowance.
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The irony of Craig Kelly blowing taxpayer funds on a stunt to illustrate the looming debt we’re facing is not lost on me.
However, he then clarified that he is yet to actually invoice the expenses yet, and “should actually pay for this myself” in what is perhaps the only smart thing to come out of Craig Kelly’s mouth in recent months.
The notes, which feature bushranger Ned Kelly printed on them, are a tribute.
“It’s a tribute to the gangsters and villains of the past,” Kelly told 9News.
You simply cannot make this up.
The stunt comes ahead of the Federal Budget, which will be released at 7.30pm tonight. We’ll be extensively covering how the budget will impact you, and the tech industry in Australia as it happens.