The Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price charged taxpayers $2,500 to fly her husband to the CPAC conservative conference in Brisbane last year, where she made a speech calling to cut government spending and implored attenders not to desert the Coalition.
Data on politicians’ official spending also reveals Labor ministers Don Farrell and Anika Wells used the contentious family travel entitlement to fly their spouses to the AFL grand final, for which they both received free tickets.
Farrell’s use of the entitlement also coincided with trips he took to a Melbourne wine event and Brisbane’s Riverfire celebration.
The family travel entitlement has since been amended by the government to limit politicians claiming airfares for their spouse to join them at lucrative major events like sporting matches, after scrutiny over Wells, Farrell, Anthony Albanese and other politicians flying their families to sporting grand finals and VIP events.
The latest batch of disclosures from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA), of claims in October-December 2025, covers the period before the new rules came into effect.
The “family travel” allowance helps fund close relatives to meet the parliamentarians when they are travelling for work.
Backbenchers are allowed the equivalent of nine business-class trips between their home city and Canberra, as well as three economy-equivalent trips to other locations in Australia.
Guardian Australia revealed that an explanatory document about the previous set of regulations said spousal travel for senior office holders was “relevantly unlimited in respect of total expenses claimable each year”.
Price charged a total of $2,537.08 to taxpayers, for “family travel” flights between her home base of Alice Springs and Brisbane, between 19 and 21 September 2025. The National-turned-Liberal senator was one of the star attractions on the lineup for the CPAC conference in Brisbane on 20 September.
She is now the shadow minister for small business, but was a backbencher at the time of the conference, having been dumped from the shadow ministry 10 days earlier over her comments about Indian migrants.
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Price claimed $574.84 on the family travel allowance for an Alice Springs to Sydney flight on 19 September, and another $173.72 for a Sydney-Brisbane leg the same day. On 21 September, another $1,788.51 was charged on family travel, between Brisbane and Alice Springs.
Her husband, musician Colin Lillie, was pictured at the CPAC conference.
In her speech at CPAC, Price was critical of record government spending, saying “you can’t subsidise your way to success, or spend your way to salvation.”
“We need less government spending – to reduce our vast level of debt that will immiserate future generations of Australians.”
She also called for Liberal supporters to not “sit on the sidelines” and said the party “must be smarter, sharper and true”.
Price’s office was contacted for comment.
The IPEA data also confirms Farrell claimed family travel from Canberra to Brisbane on 5 September, at $1,217.04, and from Brisbane to Adelaide on 7 September at $783.28, for a total of $2,000.32.
Trade minister Don Farrell at Parliament House. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
On his register of interests, Farrell declared receiving tickets and hospitality for 6 September to the “Brisbane Festival’s Riverfire 2025 at Sky Deck, Brisbane courtesy of Queensland Tourism Industry Council and Airbnb”.
Farrell similarly claimed family travel between Adelaide and Melbourne on 26 September, at a cost of $716.10; a return flight, for 28 September, came to $611.23. It totalled $1,327.33.
Farrell declared on his register that he received two tickets and hospitality to the AFL grand final on 27 September. On the same day, Farrell also declared receiving two tickets and hospitality to a Treasury Wine Estates event at upmarket Melbourne venue Miss Collins.
A spokesperson for Farrell said: “All ministerial and family travel was undertaken consistent with the rules and guidelines.”
Farrell has previously defended his use of the family travel entitlement, which has regularly coincided with his accepting of free tickets to opera and theatre productions, a sunset dinner at Uluru, and football and tennis matches.
Wells also used the family travel entitlement to fly her husband to Melbourne on the weekend of the AFL grand final, to which she declared receiving two free tickets and hospitality.
It had been reported in media that Wells had brought her husband to the match, but the IPEA reports show Wells claimed $316.52 for a Brisbane to Melbourne flight on 27 September, and a return flight the following day for $660.26, for a total $976.78. The AFL grand final was held on 27 September.
Wells’s office was contacted for comment.
Wells also used her travel entitlement in previous periods to bring family members to cricket and football matches, the Melbourne Formula One grand prix, and to the Thredbo ski resort while she was attending those locations on official ministerial business.