![\"Anika](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6ba75f4387c360e266e793b7e63233a399463d96.jpeg\")
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Anika Wells and Anthony Albanese both defended the Thredbo trip.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n
Wells and Albanese both defended 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.<\/p>\n
Under the family reunion rules, federal MPs are allowed up to three return business class flights per year for family members flying between the MP\u2019s home base and a city other than Canberra. This is how Wells recorded the flights to the cricket, to Thredbo and to the grand finals.<\/p>\n
Wells told Sky News on Sunday in response to the Thredbo story that her claims were within the rules, but she said 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 Loading<\/p>\n Chalmers declined to comment further on Monday, when asked whether the situation was fair when Australians were making difficult decisions about their own household expenses.<\/p>\n Labor minister Tanya Plibersek and backbencher Jerome Laxale gave stronger defences of Wells.<\/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 \u201cThat\u2019s when people play sport. She was in Thredbo to highlight the extra investment we\u2019re making in the Paralympics.\u201d<\/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 More than $4000 for three cricket trips<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n The two flights cost $1885.29. Wells also received three free corporate tickets from Cricket Australia.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s reception for the Australian and Pakistani teams at Kirribilli House.<\/p>\n 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. The couple were guests of Cricket Australia.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The MCG charges up to $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.<\/p>\n Sports ministers and their opposition counterparts frequently attend high-profile events as guests of sporting organisations, and their attendance at these events is in keeping with the \u201cdominant purpose\u201d test, which determines whether an MP\u2019s travel is appropriate.<\/p>\n Wells said the hospitality she received from Cricket Australia was in line with the rules of parliament\u2019s register of members\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n A government spokesman said: \u201cThe travel was in accordance with guidelines and in capacity as minister for sport.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Wells under pressure as social media ban looms<\/p>\n Wells has been under pressure since last week following revelations of the full cost of Wells\u2019 ministerial trip to the United Nations General Assembly in September to showcase the social media ban for children.<\/p>\n It then emerged she had claimed $3600 in travel entitlements for trips to Adelaide, where she attended a friend\u2019s birthday party as well as conducting official business;<\/a> three trips to France in one year<\/a> as sports minister at a combined cost $116,000, and the $2845.50 Thredbo family reunion.<\/p>\n The minister\u2019s use of family reunion flights is similar to an Uluru trip that Tony Burke took in 2012, while environment minister, when he charged taxpayers close to $9000 so his wife and children could join him.<\/p>\n Burke\u2019s claim was also within the rules, but when details of the trip emerged in 2015, he said the trip was \u201cbeyond community expectations\u201d and in 2020 paid the costs back.<\/p>\n Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson said Wells\u2019 travel and entitlement usage \u201cfailed the kitchen table test\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a minister who is not just out of touch with Australians, but she\u2019s out of touch with reality,\u201d Paterson said.<\/p>\n In 2017, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley resigned from her position as health minister in the Turnbull government when it was revealed she had bought an apartment on the Gold Coast while on official trips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The total cost of flying McCarthy and the couple\u2019s children to Melbourne was $8577.53. 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