Senior government minister Don Farrell charged taxpayers $9,000 over three years for his family\u2019s travel costs after being invited to football games and tennis matches around Australia, parliamentary records show.<\/p>\n
Amid growing scrutiny of politicians\u2019 expenses, it can be revealed that Farrell, the trade minister, also charged thousands to bring family members to Sydney, where he accepted tickets to the opera; to Uluru, where he received an exclusive sunset dinner; and to Melbourne at the time of a theatre premiere.<\/p>\n
Analysis of the register of parliamentary interests and reports from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority\u2019s (IPEA) records show at least nine instances where Farrell recorded family travel expenses \u2013 amounting to $9,001.11 \u2013 to cities where he had declared receiving free tickets.<\/p>\n
The Coalition has demanded an investigation into expenses incurred by Anika Wells, the minister for communications and sport. It follows revelations she used her travel entitlement to bring family members to cricket and football matches<\/a>, the Melbourne Formula One grand prix, and to the Thredbo ski resort while she was attending those locations on official ministerial business.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n But the shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, has also defended several family reunion claims, including bringing a family member to Bathurst in 2021 while campaigning with then prime minister Scott Morrison.<\/p>\n IPEA records show McIntosh made a family travel claim of $429.64 on 5 December 2021, the weekend of the Bathurst 100, and a day after she posted a selfie on the grid with Morrison.<\/p>\n First reported by Sky News<\/a>, McIntosh also claimed parliamentary travel expenses for flights to Queensland with her son in 2023, costing $590.73, while he competed in the Australian National Judo Championships on the Gold Coast. McIntosh told Sky News she did not know about the judo competition before planning her trip, made while she was shadow mental health minister.<\/p>\n Farrell is among the government\u2019s most-travelled ministers. IPEA\u2019s website says there are \u201cadditional family travel expenses available for family of senior office holders\u201d on top of the entitlements accessible by all MPs.<\/p>\n Farrell said in a statement all his expenses were \u201cin line with the relevant rules and guidelines\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe family reunion provisions are an important feature of our framework, allowing a diverse range of members and senators to represent their communities in our nation\u2019s parliament,\u201d he told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cOur parliament would be a lesser place if it weren\u2019t for the mechanisms that allow young mothers, single parents, those with families, and those with caring responsibilities to serve as elected members.\u201d<\/p>\n Family travel detailed<\/p>\n The family travel rules, according to IPEA, annually allow for nine business class return air fares to Canberra for a spouse or nominees, plus three economy fares for each child, from their home city each year. For travel to destinations outside Canberra, parliamentarians are allowed to claim a total of three return business class air fares in total.<\/p>\n There is no suggestion Wells or Farrell contravened these rules.<\/p>\n On Monday, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said he believed Wells\u2019 travel had been within existing rules, saying that \u201cthe rules are policed by an independent authority [the IPEA] at arm\u2019s length from politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Farrell claimed a total of $1,385.21 for family travel from his home city of Adelaide to Sydney on 12 January 2023, returning the next day. On his register of interests, Farrell declared receiving \u201c2 tickets to La Boheme and hospitality at the Sydney Opera House, courtesy of Opera Australia on 12 January 2023\u201d.<\/p>\n He charged a total of $352.78 for family travel to Melbourne on 28 January, returning 30 January 2023. Farrell declared on his register of interests that he had received \u201c2 tickets and hospitality to the Australian Open in Melbourne on 29 January 2023, courtesy of Tennis Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n Flights between Adelaide and Melbourne, between 29 September and 1 October 2023, incurred $1,290.91 in family travel. Farrell had declared \u201c2 tickets and hospitality to the 2023 AFL Grand Final \u2026 courtesy of Endeavour Group\u201d.<\/p>\n In 2024, Farrell declared two tickets to the Australian Open on 27 and 28 January from Tennis Australia. He also claimed $1,230.99 for family travel to Melbourne on 26 January, returning on 29 January.<\/p>\n Later that year, Farrell declared receiving three tickets to the Melbourne premiere of Beauty and the Beast the Musical, and hospitality at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre, on 29 June. Farrell charged $808.98 to taxpayers for family travel from Adelaide to Melbourne on 29 June, returning the next day.<\/p>\n Farrell also claimed $2,093.65 for family travel between Adelaide and \u201cAyers Rock\u201d, via Sydney, between 29 August and 1 September. Farrell declared receiving \u201ctwo tickets and hospitality to the Wintjiri Wiru Sunset Dinner at Uluru, NT, courtesy Voyages on 30 August 2024\u201d.<\/p>\n He declared four tickets and hospitality to the AFL grand final on 28 September 2024, and claimed $1,155.37 for family travel to Melbourne on 27 September \u2013 the day before the game \u2013 and then from Melbourne to Canberra on the day after the match.<\/p>\n Farrell received tickets and hospitality to the Australian Open on 25 and 26 January 2025, while claiming $407.52 for family travel between Adelaide and Melbourne between 25 and 27 January.<\/p>\n The minister declared two tickets and hospitality to a Treasury Wine Estates event in Melbourne on 27 September. He also charged $275.70 in family travel during that time, with one expense titled \u201cMelbourne\u201d on 26 September and another \u201cAdelaide\u201d on 28 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior government minister Don Farrell charged taxpayers $9,000 over three years for his family\u2019s travel costs after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-335209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335209","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=335209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}