Anika Wells’ expenses are within the rules but many politicians know these perks should be wound back

2025-12-08 14:00

On the same day Labor confirmed it was winding back energy bill discounts for 10m households, the government was once again on the back foot over travel expenses incurred by the communications minister, Anika Wells.

Last week it was revealed Wells – who is also the sports minister – expensed a mind-blowing $100,000 on a trip to New York to spruik the government’s social media ban for children under 16.

Delayed by the Optus triple-zero crisis in Australia, Wells, her staffer and a departmental official flew to the UN at the last minute. Taxpayers were charged nearly $35,000 for her business class flights, on a trip Wells did not need to take.

The revelations sparked a flood of scrutiny of her other travel costs. She insists she has followed the rules at all times, correctly reporting everything, including thousands spent at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including dinner and drinks at Frédéric Simonin, the Michelin star restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe.

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Wells has billed taxpayers thousands to attend sporting events including the Boxing Day Test, the Melbourne grand prix, and a skiing trip at Thredbo for her husband and children while she attended a Paralympics event. She also joined a friend’s 40th birthday party while in Adelaide on official business.

On Monday, Guardian Australia reported Wells claimed more than $8,500 in family travel expenses to fly to Melbourne for the AFL grand final in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

A string of new allegations emerged on Monday night, including failures to declare concert tickets and a $1,000 Comcar charge, for a driver to wait seven hours outside the Australian Open tennis final in January 2023.

Much of the controversial spending is part of the “family reunion” travel rules, which allow MPs to charge taxpayers for their spouses and children to fly with them on business. According to the independent watchdog, the rules exist to facilitate “the family life of the parliamentarian”.

MPs can claim three return business class air fares under the family reunion rules while separate provisions allow family members to fly to Canberra.

Wells might have followed the rules to the letter, but a family reunion at the Boxing Day Test or AFL grand final is embarrassing and would be much better paid for out of her own pocket.

The rules are so antiquated that when they were reviewed in 2010, officials said no one knew exactly when they were first introduced or why. In the 1920s, minister’s wives were issued free train tickets to travel to Canberra, with the rules upgraded for air travel in the 1950s. Slowly, as the demands on politicians and their families increased, more generous spending started.

Last quarter, family reunion travel cost almost $600,000. Taxpayers struggling to make weekly household budgets stack up might prefer well-paid politicians reached into their own pocket for family reunions.

The opposition said on Monday Wells was “taking taxpayers for a ride” and insisted she refer herself to the watchdog for review. Ministers including the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said only that Wells had not broken any rules.

Wells is hardly the first person to be forced to explain travel costs. On Tuesday, the shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, was defending her own parliamentary travel expenses after criticising Wells. Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, repaid $8,600 for his family to travel to join him at Uluru in 2012. Burke acknowledged the cost was “beyond community expectations” when he paid the money back, eight years after the trip took place.

You know the family reunion provisions should be wound back by the fact that many ministers and MPs opt not to use them, knowing these scandals can follow politicians around for years.

In the end, travel costs are denying Labor air on the policy that kicked off the story in the first place. The government’s world-leading social media ban comes into force on Wednesday.

Instead of clear air to sell the plan, Wells will face questions about her lavish spending in every interview.

Labor appears determined to tough out the story, rather than address overly generous travel perks from a bygone era.

Tom McIlroy is Guardian Australia’s political editor