A senior federal minister is defending her taxpayer-funded trips as being within government guidelines, as new details emerge about other costs and the coalition pushes for an independent review.
Anika Wells came under fire over the $100,000 cost to fly herself and three staff members to New York to promote Australia’s age ban on social media, with further details emerging of trips she took to Paris, Thredbo and Adelaide.
She accepted the spending would provoke a “gut reaction” from the average Australian, but said it was an independent agency booking flights, rather than her surfing “Webjet”.
Wells was due to travel to New York on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Royal Air Force plane in September but was postponed due to the fallout from a deadly Optus triple-zero failure.
“People may have an opinion about whether it was worth the money,” Wells told Sky News on Sunday.
“But for me, the policy imperative was that the life-changing work we’re trying to do … was very important and I stand by it.”
Albanese defends the spending as details of other trips emerge
Albanese defended the spending within the guidelines and said the trip to New York to promote the social media ban, which takes effect on Wednesday, was “very important”.
“This was a significant event that directly led to the European Union taking action,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
“One of the comments I heard from several UN officials was… ‘this is the first time I’ve been in a forum that has changed my mind’.”
Wells, who is also Sports Minister, reportedly made three trips to Paris in 12 months at a cost of $116,000 to attend major sporting events including the Rugby World Cup, the Paris Olympics and the Paris Paralympics.
She was allowed to spend $6,000 on meals for five days, with one dinner reportedly billed $600.
“I remember eating a granola bar in the car sometimes. These are big days,” Wells said.
“I appreciate that it looks a certain way because it’s Paris, but that’s where the Games were.”
Coalition urges revision
Coalition Senator James Paterson said he was baffled by the costs, which he said should be reviewed by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.
“That is an extraordinary use of public money and must be publicly justified,” Paterson told reporters on Sunday.
Industry spokesman Alex Hawke said the spending failed the pub test, adding that the expenditure was so high it would “make the royal family blush”.
“It just doesn’t add up and the minister’s defense doesn’t seem to be stacking up either,” he told Sky News.
“If the minister eats a granola bar…why does the taxpayer have to pay for expensive dinners…if she doesn’t participate?”
Wells was also questioned about using travel privileges to attend a friend’s birthday during a $3,600 three-day business trip to Adelaide in June.
“I met my South Australian counterpart partly over the South Australian Sport Institute, where we opened a para unit,” she said.
The minister also spent $3,000 on flights and allowances for her husband and children to join Thredbo in June 2024, while attending meetings with Paralympics Australia and Adaptive Festival organisers.
Wells acknowledged that her family went skiing, but said she was there to work and that the trip was within guidelines for family reunions and travel.
In 2012, current Home Secretary Tony Burke went on a business trip to Uluru and claimed $12,000 so his family could join him.
Although he stayed within the rules, he refunded $8,656 of that trip when the details emerged in 2015, admitting it “went beyond community expectations.”
Wells did not indicate she would pay back any of the money, saying “I work very hard” and that she will continue to follow the rules “as I have done in every single case.”
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