![\"Anika](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a6c7927b0af14fd69b60d86b7c8ad90bf2f65c27e31916405193ddda45fad761.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe use of taxpayer funds is under the spotlight again after it was revealed one minister spent hundreds on government cars for short trips in Canberra.<\/p>\n
One trip of just two kilometres cost taxpayers $337, with Communications Minister Anika Wells claiming her use of government COMCAR\u2019s instead of a taxi or Uber was because she was running late.<\/p>\n
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Wells’ latest expenses controversy comes months after she was forced to repay over $8000 in wrongly claimed travel expenses.\u00a0Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n
According to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, Wells spent nearly $3700 on using official government cars between January and March this year, with several of those journeys being in Canberra.<\/p>\n
However, many of the trips in the nation\u2019s capital were revealed to be as short as two to three kilometres per trip.<\/p>\n
COMCAR is a service offered to politicians<\/a>, where they are able to call on a driver to pick them up in a government car to take them to their destination in capital cities, with taxis also used in peak travel periods or in regional areas.<\/p>\n The service is able to be used on a 24\/7 basis, except for some public holidays.<\/p>\n Despite the short trips costing hundreds of dollars, Wells is not in breach of any parliamentary spending rules.<\/p>\n 9news National Affairs Editor Andrew Probyn believes politicians should change their travel habits despite the loophole being open.<\/p>\n \u201c[It] invites the question, why doesn\u2019t Anika Wells – and every other MP for that matter – catch a taxi instead?\u201d he said on Today.<\/p>\n He also said Wells\u2019 spending habits were more under the spotlight after she was forced to pay back $10,000 in travel expenses after an audit<\/a> last year found that over $8000 of expenses were wrongly claimed.<\/p>\n Wells’ use of the COMCAR service was within parliamentary rules.\u00a0Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n It was revealed she had flown her husband, Finn McCarthy, to several sporting events in Melbourne, claiming costs of $4000 under the Commonwealth\u2019s family reunion provision.<\/p>\n Wells was forced to pay back $8093 of wrongfully claimed expenses after several of the trips claimed for family reasons \u201cdid not fully satisfy the requirements of the Parliamentary Business Resources (PBR) regulation\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/771ad5b7e01f843801e1fd032fa863d62d185745.jpeg\")
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