The prime minister’s office approved last-minute changes to flights for Communications Minister Anika Wells and two staffers, a move that cost taxpayers nearly $100,000, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed amid ongoing scrutiny over expenses.
Ms Wells has faced criticism after Senate estimates revealed she spent $94,827 on three business-class flights to New York, where she spoke about the forthcoming social media ban at the United Nations General Assembly. She was originally set to travel with the prime minister for the September meeting but postponed her departure after news of the Optus Triple Zero outage emerged.
The minister maintains that her spending complies with the guidelines and has defended her actions. On Sunday, Mr Albanese backed her, telling ABC’s Insiders that Wells was “doing her job as the communications minister who is in charge of this world-leading legislation.” He also confirmed that he discussed the decision for her to delay travel with Wells and that his office approved the new flight arrangements. “We make decisions as a government,” he said. “We spoke in the morning, and the minister traveled. It was a very significant event for Australia.”
Since the New York flights became public, Wells has also been questioned about a trip to Adelaide for a friend’s birthday, a family ski trip to Thredbo, and meal costs during the Paris Olympics. Wells insists she was working in all cases and thus within parliamentary guidelines to have expenses charged to taxpayers.
“I had to be in two places at once. It was a very tricky situation,” she told Sky News, describing the New York flights. “I genuinely chose the option where I could discharge my duties in both areas.”
The controversy has diverted attention from Wells’s push to promote the government’s long-awaited social media ban for under-16s, set to take effect on Wednesday.
Thredbo trip scrutiny
Regarding the Thredbo trip, Wells says she was invited by Paralympics Australia and used a “family reunion” entitlement available to parliamentarians. Nine newspapers reported that the minister charged taxpayers almost $3,000 to cover travel allowances and flights for her family to join her on the snow trip. The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority notes Wells claimed $844 for two nights’ accommodation at Thredbo on June 20–21 and another $318 for a one-night stay in Canberra on June 22, listed as “official” and “parliamentary” duties.
Wells explained that her partner and children were skiing over the weekend while she attended the Adaptive Festival for Paralympics Australia, held a press conference, and visited the National Training Centre. “Every parliamentarian has a family reunion entitlement, which I follow. I followed the guidelines on this occasion. I followed the guidelines on all of the occasions. I will continue to do that,” she told Sky News. “Entitlements should be scrutinised; I’m open to scrutiny of mine, but at the end of the day, I don’t write these rules.”
The family reunion entitlement allows MPs traveling within Australia to bring a spouse, dependent children, or other designated people at government expense to facilitate “family life,” according to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.
Mr Albanese argued the trip fell within entitlements because Wells was working in her role as sports minister. He declined to state whether he would have acted the same way. “There are rules there, and I’m not going to go through each and every one,” he said.
The topic echoed discussions about a nearly decade-old incident involving former Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who charged taxpayers more than $12,000 for a four-day family trip to Uluru, including over $8,000 for business-class flights. At the time, Burke insisted the expenses were within guidelines but later conceded the trip exceeded community expectations.
Liberal frontbencher Alex Hawke criticized the justification, saying Australians may not accept that the expenses were within parliamentary guidelines. “These are very expensive trips for a relatively junior minister, and she hasn’t justified why the expenses were so high, unbelievably high,” he told Sky News. “It’s up to the prime minister to justify why Anika Wells is flying around the world and spending a lot of money beyond what ordinary Australians expect.”
