Wells charged taxpayers $1000 for car to wait while she watched tennis – for seven hours

2 months ago 14

Sports Minister Anika Wells charged taxpayers almost $1000 to have a government-funded Comcar wait seven hours for her while she attended the Australian Open tennis final in January 2023, in the latest example of the embattled cabinet minister’s use of travel entitlements.

It adds to fresh reports from Monday that show Wells billed taxpayers $10,000 to fly her husband to Melbourne for the AFL grand final three times, for the Boxing Day Test two times, and to a cricket event at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Sydney residence. On most occasions, her husband completed the return trip home to Brisbane on the same day.

Communications and Sport Minister Anika Wells.

As the opposition targets Wells over her spending, the minister updated her register of interests on Monday to declare complimentary tickets she received to 11 events this year, including the Logies, AFL, NRL and NRLW grand finals, and an Oasis concert last month. Nine of the declarations were made outside the 28-day deadline for disclosing gifts.

This masthead can also reveal Wells charged the taxpayer $1600 for travel to Melbourne on the weekend she attended a birthday party for Labor MP Peta Murphy, who died weeks later from cancer. Labor colleagues Tanya Plibersek, Alicia Payne and Marielle Smith paid their own way, according to the parliamentary expenses register.

Daily revelations about Wells’ use of travel entitlements have dogged the minister since last Wednesday, eclipsing Labor’s agenda in a week the Albanese government wants to showcase its ambitious social media ban for under-16s and land its message on the economy before this month’s mid-year budget.

Instead, government ministers are facing troubling questions about Wells’ political judgment at a time voters say they remain highly sensitive to cost of living issues.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers was pressed about Wells’ spending on Monday as he announced the government had made the “tough decision” to scrap energy bill relief to Australian households. He said travel entitlements were logged and disclosed by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, and that Wells’ spending fell within the guidelines.

“I understand that there is a view about that. I understand that people are concerned about that... That’s why the minister, in recent days, the prime minister yesterday, has answered a number of these questions at length,” Chalmers said.

“But the reports that have been made public on each occasion have been within the rules, and the rules are policed by an independent authority at arm’s length from politicians.”

Wells, who became communications minister at the start of this term, is the face of Labor’s social media ban – one of the government’s most significant undertakings, which comes into effect on Wednesday. She is expected to spend the week fronting media, attending public events and answering questions about implementation.

Family reunion travel rules

The obligations of MPs when determining whether they can claim family reunion expenses.

Dominant purpose: Under family reunion rules, an MP’s family can accompany or join them at Commonwealth expense while they are conducting parliamentary business. Travel must be for the “dominant purpose” of facilitating the family life of the parliamentarian.
Value for money: MPs are required to use public resources for parliamentary business in a way that achieves value for money. MPs can have family members travel to Canberra under a cost-based limit per year, and can claim up to three return business-class airfares for family to travel elsewhere in Australia.
Good faith: MPs need to act ethically and in good faith when using, or accounting for, public resources. They must not seek to disguise personal or commercial business as parliamentary business.
Personal responsibility and accountability: An MP is personally responsible and accountable for their use of public resources and should consider how the public would perceive their use of these resources.
Conditions: An MP must not make a claim, or incur an expense, in relation to a public resource if they have not met all of the conditions for its provision.

The minister has been active on social media but did not make a public appearance on Monday, after giving an extended interview to Sky News on Sunday dominated by questions about her expenses.

Scrutiny over Wells’ spending began last Wednesday, when it was revealed taxpayers paid almost $100,000 in flights for the minister and two staffers to visit the United Nations in New York in September. It then emerged she charged $3681 for a work trip to Adelaide that included a friend’s birthday party, $1389 for her husband and two children to join her at Thredbo’s ski fields while she was there for a work event, and $1200 to fly to Melbourne for the F1 Grand Prix with her husband.

Receipts also show Wells charged taxpayers $1750 for dinner and drinks in Paris for four people –$1000 on food and $750 on drinks for herself, a staffer, the Australian ambassador and a government official– during a trip to the French capital for the Olympic Games.

Both Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have defended the use of entitlements, repeating that they fall within the guidelines. Wells told Sky News on Sunday that 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.

New revelations include seven-hour wait for Comcar

Wells’ register of members’ interests reveals she received two tickets to both the Australian Open women’s and men’s singles finals in 2023, where she and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil were seated behind Tennis Australia chair Jayne Hrdlicka, then-governor-general David Hurley and tennis legends Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Billy Jean King.

Sports Minister Anika Wells at the Australian Open this year.

Figures from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority show Wells charged taxpayers $958.98 for her Comcar on Saturday, January 28. The hourly rate for Comcars is $133.20, which means that Wells’ car was waiting for the minister for about seven hours.

The next day, when Wells attended the men’s final, she charged taxpayers for two Comcar trips that cost $123.91 and $142.80, respectively. The total cost of the minister’s trip to Melbourne on that weekend – including Comcars, flights, and the $469 daily travel allowance – was more than $3800.

Wells’ attendance at the Australian Open finals is standard practice for sports ministers and her expense claims are within the rules. It is unusual, however, for a Comcar to be made to wait for seven hours.

A government spokesman said: “The travel is in line with the guidelines and the minister attended in her role as sport minister.”

Late MPs’ birthday the second party on Wells’ expenses log

Wells also charged taxpayers $1600 for travel to Melbourne on the weekend of Labor MP Peta Murphy’s final birthday party on Saturday November 18, 2023, a month before Murphy died. The 50th birthday event was attended by Labor MPs from Victoria, as well as interstate MPs including Wells, Plibersek, Payne and Smith.

Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority records show that Plibersek, Payne and Smith did not charge taxpayers for travel to Melbourne that weekend.

The IPEA website shows Wells charged taxpayers $913.91 to fly from Brisbane to Melbourne on November 18, and return the next day.

Over those same two days, Wells took five taxpayer-funded Comcars: two in Melbourne and one in Brisbane on November 18, and one in each city on November 19. The cost of those five Comcar trips was $688.32, bringing the total trip expenses to $1602.23.

Wells, who was aged care minister at the time, did not charge taxpayers the $469 travel allowance for her one night stay in Melbourne even though she was entitled to, given she claimed to be on parliamentary business.

Wells’ official media page on the health department website shows she did not make any major announcements or publish any media releases that weekend.

However, on her Instagram page, she posted photos from two events: one celebrating a grant for a local surf lifesaving club in Melbourne with Labor MP Josh Burns on Saturday, and the other visiting residents at an aged care home “for their word puzzle” with local MP Carina Garland on the Sunday.

A spokesman said that Wells’ travel was in accordance with the guidelines, pointing to the two community events she attended in Melbourne.

Taxpayers charged thousands for Wells’ husband to attend sports events

The two new revelations from this masthead add to pressure on Wells that mounted on Monday with several reports about the extent of taxpayer-funded travel for her husband, Finn McCarthy.

Her husband attended three grand finals, one of which was also attended by her children, and their flights cost the taxpayer $8577.53. Adding other travel allowances the cost was more than $16,000.

Sports Minister Anika Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with the Australian men’s cricket team at Kirribilli House in January this year.

McCarthy has also attended two Boxing Day Test matches with Wells and another cricket event at Kirribilli House. His flights for those events cost taxpayers $4183.83, and on all three occasions the sports minister and her husband were together for one day.

Labor MPs grilled on Wells’ judgment

Some Labor backbenchers privately say she should repay the expenses, while others defend her spending time with her family. Labor minister Tanya Plibersek and backbencher Jerome Laxale defended Wells on Monday.

“There are so many weekends away from home, and if you’re sports minister, a lot of those are very deliberately weekend events that you’re required to attend because that’s when people watch sport,” Plibersek said on Sky News.

Laxale said Australians understood that the sports minister would attend events. “I think it’s a pretty dangerous thing to do, to start attacking politicians for trying to spend time with their family. Sometimes the only time you can spend with them is at work events,” he said.

“That’s difficult, but that’s why this process exists, so that ministers and MPs can spend time with their family. I think it’s important that that system remains. Obviously there’s scrutiny on it, and that’s very fair too.”

Liberal MP Aaron Violi said there was merit to family reunions given MPs travel a lot. “But it has to be treated with respect,” he said. “Why this need to use family reunion on taxpayer money for your husband to come to Boxing Day? They’re the kinds of questions that need to be answered.”

He called for IPEA to investigate.

Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh, whose own family travel allowances have been scrutinised, said she felt for Wells as a mother, and defended bringing children on work trips. “I have no issue with the family reunion thing. It’s hard being a female MP,” she said. “It’s hard. You bring your child with you.”

But she said Wells’ decisions showed a different pattern of behaviour. “That’s a lot of money during a cost of living crisis,” she said. “She’s throwing around taxpayer money like it’s confetti.”