Don't give up your day job.

In the last week the Australian Greens have lost two of their most high-profile senators: Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters. Both resignations were the result of Ludlam and Waters failing to renounce their citizenship of other countries, which ruled them ineligible serve.

The first notice we got that something was amiss, in both cases, was a brief statement from the Greens saying that they would be making an “important announcement”, with no other details. That announcement ended up being Ludlam and Waters resigning from parliament.

So when Greens leader Richard Di Natale tweeted that he had an “important announcement” people started freaking out.

I will be making an important announcement shortly. — Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) July 21, 2017

Dont you fucking do this to me Richard — Michael Beveridge (@mickyb273) July 21, 2017

Don’t even tell me we’ve got a hat-trick… #auspol — Christopher Bendall (@CFBendall) July 21, 2017

Not another one? ? — Emily (@ThatEmilyLady) July 21, 2017

Oh Richard Di Natale, what have you done. — Aleks (@A_Cul21) July 21, 2017

Di Natale was born in Australia but had previously held Italian citizenship. He said he renounced his citizenship prior to his election in 2010 but The Australian wasn’t happy to take him at his word and had been demanding proof, leading to speculation he hadn’t “properly renounced” it.

So it’s not surprising plenty of people started freaking out. But what was the announcement?

Turns out it was a 2004 letter from the Italian consul general in Melbourne confirming that Mr Richard Luigi Di Natale was not an Italian citizen.

You can start the Luigi jokes now. — Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) July 21, 2017

On one hand it was a pretty masterful troll. But joking about making “important announcements” on citizenship issues in the same week you lost both of your highly popular deputy leaders? Seems a bit weird.

Junkee contacted Larissa Waters’ office soon after Di Natale tweeted about his impending announcement to see if they knew what was going on. They had no idea what was happening and sounded quite panicked by the whole thing.

However, immediately after Di Natale’s tweet another Greens senator, Nick McKim, tweeted “Hold the front page of The Oz!!!” suggesting that some Greens knew what was going on while others, including staff who are about to lose their jobs due to the resignations, were left in the cold.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE OF THE OZ!!! https://t.co/XMWZPrNc7j — Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) July 21, 2017

Junkee understands that not all Greens offices were forewarned about Ludlam’s resignation, and that’s why there was some panic after Di Natale’s tweet today.

Plenty of people were unimpressed by the joke.

Seriously, what a ridiculous thing for @RichardDiNatale to announce like this given recent circumstances. #poorjudgement — Sibylla ???️‍? (@Miss_Sibylla) July 21, 2017

Pretty pathetic to turn your co-deputy’s problems into a joke mate — Roman Ristovski (@RomanRistovski) July 21, 2017

Love Gotcha jokes from senior political officials. Omg so hilarious. Can't wait for my future kids to ask me what politics was like in 2k17. — karaVAGgio (@karaschlegl) July 21, 2017

The Greens just lost two high-ranking Senators over admin error and RDN wants to make jokes about it? Yuck — Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) July 21, 2017