Anika Wells is a talent. She could be PM one day, but Albanese should sack her as sports minister

1 day ago 3

Opinion

December 12, 2025 — 5.00am

Can Anika Wells ever set foot inside a sports stadium again? Australians love to boo a politician at the footy. John Howard was regularly heckled when he turned up at sporting events, and every subsequent prime minister has, sooner or later, copped it, too.

Wells, our federal sports minister, might not be prime minister but her days of attending major sporting events are surely done. Can you imagine the reception she would receive if she turned up at the Boxing Day Test this year, with or without her husband?

Anthony Albanese has made being boring a virtue: stolid, predictable, no alarms and no surprises, and that has worked well for 3½ years. That is what makes the Wells expenses scandal – which has now spread to other MPs from all sides of politics – so surprising. Albanese prides himself on being able to read the national mood. He is (mostly) very good at it, though the Voice was an exception.

And on this issue, Albanese is profoundly wrong. Every time the prime minister and sports minister insist the spending was within the rules, they should stop for a moment and remember that the minimum wage in Australia is $948 per week. Wells charged taxpayers more than that, on more than one occasion, so a taxpayer-funded Comcar could wait for her while she attended Australian Open and NRL finals.

It might be within the rules, as we keep being reminded, but the rules are too generous.

Wells belatedly asked the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority to audit her expense claims, and she will probably be cleared by the IPEA. She knows the rules, and she has used them to the fullest extent. She might have to pay back a few thousand dollars for this or that claim but, at most, she faces a slap on the wrist.

The IPEA does not set the rules on politicians’ entitlements. Politicians do. The repeated claims from Albanese, Wells and others that they don’t set the rules is a spectacular piece of misdirection.

Politicians’ entitlements are governed by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority Act 2017 and the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017, both of which came into effect that year after the then health minister, Sussan Ley, was forced to resign over her use of entitlements.

A stroke of the pen could change the rules that Wells so ruthlessly exploited. And nearly 10 years on from the Ley scandal, it’s time the rules were updated.

The Wells saga has dominated politics for the past week for a reason. It simply doesn’t pass the pub test, or the kitchen table test, or the cost of living test – or any other test you care to throw at it.

This is not about gender, either. Tony Burke was eviscerated in 2015 when, after the Bronwyn Bishop “choppergate” scandal broke, it emerged that in 2012 he had flown his entire family to Uluru, business class, for a few days. Again, it was within the rules. But as Burke figured out, and said at the time, it did not meet community expectations. He repaid the money.

Though it took a few years, Burke, the current leader of the House of Representatives and close ally of Albanese, set a minimum standard – one that Wells has, bizarrely, decided not to follow.

Of all the claims that Wells made under family reunion entitlements, her husband Finn McCarthy’s trips to multiple Boxing Day Tests and AFL grand finals stand out. Most of them were one-day “family reunions” – as in, McCarthy flew up and back in a day – and took place in corporate boxes.

No, it’s not about gender; it’s about public expectations and what is right and proper.

It’s fantastic that Wells is succeeding in politics. As a fellow parent of three young children of almost identical ages, including twin boys, I am in awe of Wells’ and McCarthy’s ability to juggle two high-powered careers. Wells has been marked early as a potential future prime minister, and the furore over her expenses will not preclude her from, one day, being a candidate for that job.

This scandal began when Wells’ $100,000 flight to New York emerged during Senate estimates. Wells then mishandled questions about those flights at the National Press Club.

Her “I don’t set the rules” comment in an extraordinary interview with Sky News’ Andrew Clennell last Sunday – as details of trips to Thredbo emerged – poured petrol on the fire.

Wells has paid no political price for her use of entitlements, and she probably never will. In a week or four, she will probably be cleared by the IPEA and the caravan will move on because – as she keeps telling us – she followed the rules. But rather than shrinking from the moment, Albanese – who has spoken over and over again about wanting to restore trust in politics, which he regards as an honourable profession – should lean into this moment rather than hiding behind regulations he has the power to change.

A request from Albanese to the finance minister is all it would take for a review of the legislation, then some changes to the rules. If the prime minister is serious about restoring Australians’ faith in politics, he needs to wake up to himself on this issue. He will never have more political capital than he does now.

Politicians work incredibly hard and spend long periods of time away from their families. Family reunion entitlements should remain. But Wells’ use of the entitlements, while within the letter of the law, is not within the spirit of the rules. She should be stripped of the sports portfolio because her position is all but untenable. She should keep communications because that’s a huge portfolio – plenty of work for one minister – and a job that needn’t take her to a sporting arena. Losing sport would be punishment enough.

Then the entitlement rules should be rewritten.

Because as it stands, if Wells travels to Melbourne to attend the Boxing Day Test in two weeks’ time, it’s a fair bet 100,000 spectators will be booing her the moment her face appears on the big screen at the Punt Road end – and Albanese’s quest to restore faith in politics will be clean-bowled.

James Massola is chief political commentator.