{"id":334513,"date":"2025-12-08T08:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334513\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:14:08","slug":"sports-minister-charged-taxpayers-1000-for-car-to-wait-seven-hours-at-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334513\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports minister charged taxpayers $1000 for car to wait seven hours at Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBut 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\u2019s length from politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells, who became communications minister at the start of this term, is the face of Labor\u2019s social media ban \u2013 one of the government\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Family reunion travel rules<\/p>\n

The obligations of MPs when determining whether they can claim family reunion expenses.<\/p>\n

Dominant purpose: Under family reunion rules, an MP\u2019s family can accompany or join them at Commonwealth expense while they are conducting parliamentary business. Travel must be for the \u201cdominant purpose\u201d 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.\u00a0Conditions: 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Scrutiny over Wells\u2019 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<\/a> in September. It then emerged she charged $3681 for a work trip to Adelaide that included a friend\u2019s birthday party<\/a>, $1389 for her husband and two children to join her at Thredbo\u2019s ski fields while she was there for a work event, and $1200 to fly to Melbourne for the F1 Grand Prix with her husband.<\/p>\n

Receipts also show Wells charged taxpayers $1750 for dinner and drinks in Paris for four people \u2013$1000 on food and $750 on drinks for herself, a staffer, the Australian ambassador and a government official\u2013 during a trip to the French capital for the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cabsolutely appreciate that people have a gut reaction to these figures\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t resile from that, and that\u2019s why I agreed that entitlements should be scrutinised. I\u2019m happy for mine to be scrutinised,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, I don\u2019t write these rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albanese told the ABC\u2019s Insiders program<\/a> it was \u201ccompletely within the rules\u201d. \u201cThere are family reunion entitlements available. All of the travel was within guidelines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New revelations include seven-hour wait for Comcar<\/p>\n

Wells\u2019 register of members\u2019 interests reveals she received two tickets to both the Australian Open women\u2019s and men\u2019s singles finals in 2023, where she and Housing Minister Clare O\u2019Neil were seated behind Tennis Australia chair Jayne Hrdlicka, then-governor-general David Hurley and tennis legends Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n

\"Sports<\/p>\n

Sports Minister Anika Wells at the Australian Open this year.Credit: Tennis Australia\/Fiona Hamilton<\/p>\n

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\u2019 car was waiting for the minister for about seven hours.<\/p>\n

The next day, when Wells attended the men\u2019s final, she charged taxpayers for two Comcar trips that cost $123.91 and $142.80, respectively. The total cost of the minister\u2019s trip to Melbourne on that weekend \u2013 including Comcars, flights, and the $469 daily travel allowance \u2013 was more than $3800.<\/p>\n

Wells\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

A government spokesman said: \u201cThe travel is in line with the guidelines and the minister attended in her role as sport minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Late MP\u2019s birthday the second party on Wells\u2019 expenses log<\/p>\n

Wells also charged taxpayers $1600 for travel to Melbourne on the weekend of Labor MP Peta Murphy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority records show that Plibersek, Payne and Smith did not charge taxpayers for travel to Melbourne that weekend.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Wells\u2019 official media page on the health department website shows she did not make any major announcements or publish any media releases that weekend.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cfor their word puzzle\u201d with local MP Carina Garland on the Sunday.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said that Wells\u2019 travel was in accordance with the guidelines, pointing to the two community events she attended in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

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Taxpayers charged thousands for Wells\u2019 husband to attend sports events<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Her husband has attended three AFL grand finals over three years. One was an overnight trip, one was a long weekend, which was also attended by their three children, and one was a same-day return trip.<\/p>\n

Their flights collectively cost the taxpayer $8577.53. Adding other travel allowances, the cost was more than $16,000.<\/p>\n

McCarthy also attended the 2025 AFL grand final, according to Wells\u2019 social media, but those expenses have not yet been disclosed.<\/p>\n

In the two-and-a-half years Wells has been sports minister, McCarthy has also made same-day return trips at taxpayers\u2019 expense to attend two Boxing Day Test matches with Wells, and another cricket event at Kirribilli House.<\/p>\n

\"Sports<\/p>\n

Sports Minister Anika Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with the Australian men\u2019s cricket team at Kirribilli House in January this year.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

His flights for those events cost taxpayers $4183.83.<\/p>\n

Labor MPs grilled on Wells\u2019 judgment<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many weekends away from home, and if you\u2019re sports minister, a lot of those are very deliberately weekend events that you\u2019re required to attend because that\u2019s when people watch sport,\u201d Plibersek said on Sky News.<\/p>\n

Laxale said Australians understood that the sports minister would attend events. \u201cI think it\u2019s 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s difficult, but that\u2019s why this process exists, so that ministers and MPs can spend time with their family. I think it\u2019s important that that system remains. Obviously there\u2019s scrutiny on it, and that\u2019s very fair too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Aaron Violi said there was merit to family reunions, given MPs travel a lot. \u201cBut it has to be treated with respect,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy this need to use family reunion on taxpayer money for your husband to come to Boxing Day? They\u2019re the kinds of questions that need to be answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for IPEA to investigate.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI have no issue with the family reunion thing. It\u2019s hard being a female MP,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard. You bring your child with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she said Wells\u2019 decisions showed a different pattern of behaviour. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of money during a cost of living crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s throwing around taxpayer money like it\u2019s confetti.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more on Wells\u2019 expenses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut the reports that have been made public on each occasion have been within the rules, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-334513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}