Wells billed taxpayers to fly husband to two Boxing Day Tests

11 hours ago 1

Sports Minister Anika Wells charged taxpayers more than $4000 in flights so her husband Finn McCarthy could join her at three cricket events, including the Boxing Day Test match twice.

In 2022 and 2024, Wells flew McCarthy from Brisbane to Melbourne under family reunion entitlements to attend the December 26 Test match, while enjoying the corporate hospitality of the sport’s governing body.

Communications and Sport Minister Anika Wells.

The minister, who on Sunday was defending a separate use of taxpayer-funded entitlements to fly her husband and two of their three children to join her at the Thredbo ski resort this year, also flew McCarthy to Sydney for a cricket event hosted by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Wells and Albanese both scrambled on Sunday to defend her use of nearly $3000 in taxpayer-funded money after this masthead revealed her family had flown in to Thredbo while she undertook official business with the Australian Paralympic ski team.

Under the family reunion rules, federal MPs are allowed up to three return business class flights per year for family members that are between the MP’s home base and a city other than Canberra. This is how Wells recorded the flights to the cricket and to Thredbo.

There is no suggestion that Wells has contravened these rules, but the expenses claims raise fresh questions about her use of entitlements and whether they are in line with “community expectations”.

Wells told Sky News on Sunday in response to the Thredbo story that her claims were within the rules, but she said she could “absolutely appreciate that people have a gut reaction to these figures”.

“I don’t resile from that, and that’s why I agreed that entitlements should be scrutinised. I’m happy for mine to be scrutinised,” she said, “but at the end of the day, I don’t write these rules.“

Albanese told the ABC’s Insiders program it was “completely within the rules”.

“There are family reunion entitlements available. All of the travel was within guidelines,” he said.

It can now be revealed that during the 2022-23 Test cricket series against South Africa, Wells charged taxpayers for family reunion flights on December 26, so McCarthy could fly between Brisbane and Melbourne in one day. The two flights cost $1885.29. Wells also received three free corporate tickets from Cricket Australia to attend the match.

In the 2023-24 season against Pakistan, Wells received only one free ticket to attend the Boxing Day Test. She did not charge taxpayers for her husband to fly to Melbourne that year.

However, taxpayers were hit just a few days later, when Wells spent another $1274.72 for two more family reunion flights between Brisbane and Sydney, on January 1, so McCarthy could join her at Albanese’s reception for the Australian and Pakistani teams at Kirribilli House.

During the 2024-25 season, Wells charged taxpayers for reunion flights that cost $983.82 so that McCarthy could fly return from Brisbane to Melbourne to join her at the MCG on December 26. On this occasion, the couple were guests of Cricket Australia.

The total cost to taxpayers for all flights was $4183.83 over three years, according to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority website, and on all three occasions, the sports minister and her husband had been together for just one day.

The MCG charges as much as $995 per person for a seat in a corporate box, which means the potential value of the six free tickets from Cricket Australia could be nearly $6000.

Sports ministers and their opposition counterparts frequently attend high-profile sporting events as guests of sporting organisations, and their attendance at these events is in keeping with the “dominant purpose” test, which is applied to whether an MP’s travel is appropriate.

Wells has also declared that the hospitality she received from Cricket Australia is in line with the rules of parliament’s register of members’ interests.

The spokesman did not answer questions about why Wells needed to have three one-day reunions with her husband, whether the minister would repay any of the expenses claimed, or whether the trips met community expectations.

The minister’s use of family reunion flights is similar to an Uluru trip that current Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke took in 2012, while environment minister, when he charged taxpayers close to $9000 so his wife and children could join him.

Burke’s claim was also within the rules, but when details of the trip emerged in 2015, he did say the trip was “beyond community expectations” and, in 2020, he paid the costs back.

Shadow special minister of state Alex Hawke said Wells’ defence of her expenses did not stack up and that “when you look at the expenses of Anika Wells, whether it’s New York, whether it’s Paris, whether it’s Thredbo, these are expenses that would make the royals blush”.

Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson echoed Hawke’s criticism and said Wells’ travel and entitlement usage “failed the kitchen table test”.