Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior Minister Tanya Plibersek have both defended the spending of embattled Communications and Sports Minister Anika Wells, as information continues to emerge about her travel spending, which runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The scrutiny began when it was revealed last week that it cost taxpayers more than $100,000 (US$66,500) for flights to send her, a staff member and a public servant to New York to promote Australia’s social media ban.
Albanese justified that by saying that, “as the communications minister who is in charge of this world-leading legislation,” Wells was “doing her job.”
“And it was an important event. And it wasn’t just the event there, it was then the follow-up of people wanting to have meetings, have discussions, how is this going to work? What can we do to get buy-in here? When you’ve got Australia, a middle power, taking on these global giants,” he told the ABC.
But controversy over that trip triggered a series of leaks about other expenses Wells had charged to her official budget, despite earning a salary of over $400,000 a year, plus a range of allowances.
Money Spent on Travel for Minister’s Husband
There are also questions over at least four trips taken by her husband: $1,885 in 2022 for return flights between Brisbane and Melbourne so he could join her for the Boxing Day cricket test against South Africa; $1,275 in 2024 to fly him to Sydney for the prime minister’s reception for the Australian and Pakistani cricket teams; $984 that same year to fly him to Melbourne for a match at the MCG; and another trip last year which cost $888 to fly him from Brisbane to Melbourne for the 2024 Formula One Grand Prix.
And this year, when invited by Paralympics Australia to its Adaptive Festival, which encourages young people with disabilities to try snow sports, she billed taxpayers almost $3,000 to have her husband and children join her for a weekend at a Thredbo ski resort.
Those flights were all claimed under “family reunion” rules, which allow politicians to claim three business-class airfares a year for family members to join them while they’re travelling on official business.
Plibersek argued that the spending had been reported transparently and that the role of sports minister required extensive weekend travel.
“It’s not a nine-to-five job,” she told Seven’s Sunrise. “There’s so many weekends away from home.”
Fellow minister Amanda Rishworth conceded MPs needed to be “very, very careful” with their spending while people were struggling to make ends meet, but said the travel was for work purposes.
“Minister Wells has extensively answered these questions and made it very clear that she followed the guidelines,” she told Nine’s Today Show.
Federal law allows parliamentarians to use public resources “for the dominant purpose of conducting parliamentary business,” but they must ensure “value for money.”
Under Labor’s ministerial code of conduct, frontbenchers are also reminded to be cautious with their use of taxpayer money.
Official Meetings Scheduled Around Personal Events
In many cases, Wells scheduled meetings around the private event she attended.For instance, the trip to Adelaide was scheduled over three days, from June 6 to 8, costing $3,681.82—including $2,683.68 for return flights between Brisbane and Adelaide, $572.14 in official car services, and $426 on accommodation. No claims for transport were made on June 7, when Wells attended the birthday party of the former adviser to Julia Gillard, Connie Blefari.
But the opposition says Wells’ spending warrants an independent inquiry, arguing that even if the travel was within the guidelines, ministers should be held to a higher standard.
Liberal frontbencher Angus Taylor said the spending didn’t pass the pub test.
“You don’t pay for your family to go on holidays ... with your expense funding,” he told ABC radio, while Liberal Senator Jane Hume said the spending does not meet “community expectations.”
“Anika Wells’ judgment is being called into question,” Hume told Sky News Australia. “The idea that you can game the rules that exist to advantage you doesn’t really sit comfortably.”
Accusations about misuse of public funds for travel and accommodation aren’t new to Australian politics. A decade ago, Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott came under fire for spending more than $23,000 on trips associated with the 2012 Coffs Coast Cycle Challenge, the 2011 Bathurst V8 Supercar Race, the 2010 Melbourne Cup, the 2010 Boxing Day Test match at the MCG, and the 2011 Birdsville Races.
He responded by listing Labor politicians who'd used Commonwealth cars and planes to attend sporting events.
These included Julia Gillard and Simon Crean attending the AFL grand final in 2011; Stephen Conroy going to the Australian Open in 2012; and Wayne Swan travelling by VIP aircraft to the NRL and AFL finals while he was acting prime minister in 2010.
