{"id":337138,"date":"2025-12-09T12:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:34:08","slug":"between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-bill-shorten-defends-anika-wells-travel-expenses-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337138\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Between a rock and a hard place\u2019: Bill Shorten defends Anika Wells travel expenses | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten<\/a> has stridently defended former colleague Anika Wells over her use of travel entitlements, saying her role as sports minister meant she was \u201cbetween a rock and a hard place\u201d in choosing whether to attend major events.<\/p>\n

Shorten, the former minister who quit parliament in January, said senior politicians were often away from home travelling on business for more than 100 nights per year, and claimed \u201csome people won\u2019t be happy until politicians are hitchhiking up the Hume and sleeping in a tent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019d want to be a sports minister? If you don\u2019t go to the events, you\u2019re a sport hating, un-Australian nerd \u2013 and if you do, somehow you\u2019re getting an unfair benefit,\u201d he told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t win either way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells, the minister for communications and sport, said on Tuesday she has referred her travel spending to the parliament\u2019s expenses watchdog \u201cfor the avoidance of doubt\u201d, but maintains she had remained within the rules.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideWhat are the family travel rules?Show<\/p>\n

Politicians in Australia can claim nine business class airfares for their spouse to travel from their home city to Canberra each year, according to the parliamentary expense authority, the IPEA. Politicians can also claim three economy fares per child.<\/p>\n

For places outside of Canberra, however, politicians can claim three return business class airfares for family members in total.<\/p>\n

IPEA’s website says: \u201cFamily reunion travel can be accessed where: the parliamentarian is travelling for the dominant purpose of conducting parliamentary business, and; the family member\/s travels to accompany or join the parliamentarian, and; travel is for the dominant purpose of facilitating the family life of the parliamentarian”<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

It came after revelations Wells had used a travel entitlement <\/a>\u2013 available to all politicians \u2013 to fly family members to the Thredbo ski resort, the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix, cricket matches and AFL grand finals. Days of media reporting followed scrutiny of her travel to France for sporting events, to Adelaide for meetings coinciding with a friend\u2019s birthday, and nearly $100,000 in air fares<\/a> for the minister and two staff to fly to New York, which were signed off by the prime minister.<\/p>\n

The scrutiny is now widening to other government and Coalition MPs<\/a>. Prime minister Anthony Albanese and treasurer Jim Chalmers have been among senior government members backing Wells, saying her spending was within existing rules.<\/p>\n

Chalmers said on Monday that spending was \u201cpoliced by an independent authority at arm\u2019s length from politicians, and that\u2019s as it should be\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a rare intervention into federal politics since leaving parliament ahead of the 2025 election<\/a>, Shorten \u2013 now vice-chancellor at the University of Canberra \u2013 said Wells had received harsh treatment, considering her ministerial responsibilities.<\/p>\n

The minister for sport is expected to meet with sporting stakeholders and advocate for Australian events, which traditionally includes often attending major matches and tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s between a rock and a hard place,\u201d Shorten said.<\/p>\n

Shorten, former minister for government services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme added: \u201cI had the privilege of visiting many Centrelink offices, but nobody ever thought I was doing the wrong thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the system of entitlements required review or updating, Shorten said \u201cas for parliamentarians\u2019 conditions, I don\u2019t know where you draw the line\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say some things are beyond the pale. I spent 17 years doing 130 nights away on average. I understand nobody has sympathy for the political class, but there\u2019s also feeling that some people won\u2019t be happy until politicians are hitchhiking up the Hume and sleeping in a tent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some sympathy for former colleagues, of all persuasions. There\u2019s an element of people against paying for politicians at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Coalition and Greens are supportive of a review of the parliament\u2019s travel and expenses system.<\/p>\n

The opposition had for days requested Wells\u2019 spending be reviewed by the independent parliamentary expenses authority.<\/p>\n

But shadow ministers James McGrath and James Paterson, not satisfied with Wells self-referral, have now demanded her spending be scrutinised by the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, alleging a potential breach of the ministerial code of conduct.<\/p>\n

The opposition is also demanding Wells now stand aside from her ministerial role during the IPEA investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Labor leader Bill Shorten has stridently defended former colleague Anika Wells over her use of travel entitlements,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-337138","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\/337138","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=337138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}