Colonel Michael Joseph Kelly, AM (born 23 February 1960) is an Australian former politician who twice represented the Division of Eden-Monaro in the Parliament of Australia, from 2007 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2020.

In a third reshuffle in early 2013, Kelly was promoted to the outer ministry as Minister for Defence Materiel, a position he held from March to September that year.

He was awarded the Chief of the General Staff Commendation for his service and, in 1994, was made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his work in Somalia.

[8] Appeals were immediately made, with the prosecution demanding the death penalty mandatory for murder under the Somali Penal Code.

[8] A panel of six judges heard the appeal, upheld the previous verdicts and imposed the sentence of death to be carried out forthwith.

[8] Eventually a group of engineers arrived, Gutaale was handcuffed and Kelly wrestled him along the roadway to his place of execution.

In June 2003, he inspected detention facilities in Iraq, including those at Abu Ghraib, and reported to the Australian Government on the treatment of detainees.

[10] In the 2007 federal election, Kelly stood as the Labor candidate for the marginal New South Wales country electorate of Eden-Monaro, regarded as a "Bellwether seat".

He was criticised by his opponent, long-standing Liberal member Gary Nairn for not residing in the electorate before his nomination and for not facing a local preselection.

[11] Nairn's chief of staff also publicly likened Kelly to a Belsen Nazi concentration camp guard for serving in the military in Iraq despite opposing the war itself.

[14] At the 2007 federal election on 24 November, Kelly won the seat with a 6.67% two-party-preferred swing,[15] and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support in the incoming Rudd Government.

All trace of the platoon had disappeared from the records of the Vietnam War and had compromised the service histories of the 39 men who had served in it.

After a redistribution changed the boundaries of Eden-Monaro, Kelly defeated Liberal candidate David Gazard in the 2010 federal election with a swing of 2%.

As a result of the re-elected Labor Government's regional focus, Kelly was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in September 2010.

[17] In a third reshuffle in early 2013, Kelly was promoted to the outer ministry and replaced Jason Clare as Minister for Defence Materiel.

The first attack was when a neo-Nazi sticker with the words "Antipodean Resistance" was placed on his Bega electorate office window.