Labor minister Anika Wells charged taxpayers to take family to Thredbo ski resort
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Sport and Communications Minister Anika Wells said “I don’t write the rules” as she defended her and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s use of taxpayer-funded rights to take his family on a ski trip to Thredbo ski resort.
Wells left questions unanswered Sky News He acknowledged that people would debate whether the use of the power had passed the “publication test” and whether family reunification rules should be changed “but my duty is to comply with them and that’s what I’ve done”.
The Brisbane-based sports and communications minister spent two nights in Thredbo on June 20 and 21 this year after being invited by Paralympic Australia to the Adaptive Festival weekend designed to encourage young people with disabilities to try snow sports.
He met with festival organisers, Australian Paralympic Games officials and Paralympic athletes over two days and announced an extra $2 million in funding for the sport. Wells admitted his family skied at Thredbo even though he “worked on the weekend”.
“I absolutely appreciate that people have a visceral reaction to these numbers,” he said.
“I’m not amenable to that, and that’s why I’ve accepted that the mandates need to be reviewed. I’m happy that mine are being reviewed,” he said, “but ultimately I don’t write these rules.”
Albanese told ABC’s insider program Wells acted entirely within the rules of the federal parliament.
“Anika Wells was working on that trip as minister of sports and was involved in the recovery of parasport. This was being driven by Anika Wells,” he said.
“There are rules there, and I’m not going to go over every one of them. I’ve got a big job, David. This is completely within the rules.”
“They have the right to family reunification; all travel is within the rules. It was working and there were announcements and events there.”
Wells is also under pressure for using his taxpayer rights to attend a friend’s birthday party in Adelaide, the sky-high cost of flying to New York for United Nations meetings and the expenses of his trips to France as Sports minister.
Wells faces multiple spending questions
Wells has been under fire since Wednesday after it was revealed he charged taxpayers more than $100,000 for flights to New York in a bid to showcase Australia’s social media ban.
This followed reports that he had used his travel rights for trips to Adelaide, where he attended a friend’s birthday party, and made three trips to France in a year to attend the Rugby World Cup and Olympics as sports minister.
Anger over Wells’ use of spending has overshadowed the minister’s attempts to promote new laws restricting social media use by under-16s, which will come into force this Wednesday.
Independent Parliamentary Expenditures Authority figures show the minister claimed an $844 taxpayer-funded travel allowance to stay at a resort in Thredbo for two nights, and then claimed a further $318 to stay in Canberra on Sunday night, citing “parliamentary duties”.
Their flight from Brisbane to Canberra, the closest major airport to the Thredbo resort, cost taxpayers another $294.32.
Wells was accompanied by her husband, Finn McCarthy, and two of their three children under “family reunification” rules that allow MPs to reunite with their families on business trips.
Taxpayers spent another $1,389.18 on flights so her family could accompany her in the snow for the weekend, and Wells’ husband posted photos of his children on the ski trip on social media a few days later.
In total, the two-day trip to the ski areas cost taxpayers $2,845.50, but a government spokesman defended the minister’s travel and use of his powers by saying “the travel was within the rules”.
But Wells’ use of family reunification rules is strikingly similar to the current Home Secretary’s outing. Tony Burke returns to Uluru in April 2012While he was the minister of environment, he requested $12,000 for allowance and plane ticket so that his family could accompany him on this trip.
Details of Burke’s trip emerged in 2015, just after the Bronwyn Bishop “helicopter gate” scandal. At the time, Burke, like Wells, insisted he had not broken the rules but acknowledged the trip was “beyond the community’s expectations” of what MPs should call for on taxpayer-funded spending.
Burke Reimbursed $8656.48 for this trip – the cost of four plane tickets – five years later, in 2020.
There is no allegation that Wells breached the rules on his trip to Thredbo for official duties, but the expense allegations raise new questions about his use of powers and whether they were in line with “community expectations”.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Chalmers was asked on the ABC last week 730 He included on the show whether Wells’s trip to New York passed the bar test, arguing: “That’s for others to judge. But from my perspective, it’s an official trip. It’s perfectly within the rules.”
The rules on what expenditure and allowances ministers can claim are subject to the Exchequer’s “overriding purpose” test.
This test states that expenditure claims can be made for one of four reasons: when an MP or minister is undertaking parliamentary duties, electoral duties, party political duties or official duties.
“The overriding purpose test asks whether you undertook the activity, or incurred or claimed expenses, funds or other public resources, even if it was not for parliamentary business,” the department’s website states.
Reunion rules allow family members to travel to Canberra from their home base; The maximum annual cost limit is set at the equivalent of nine business class return airfares to Canberra for an MP’s partner, plus three economy class return airfares to Canberra for each dependent child.
The House Senate estimates committee heard last week that Wells, a staffer and public servant, spent nearly $100,000 on flights to attend the United Nations General Assembly and another $70,000 to host an exciting event. government’s social media ban on young people earlier this year.
After a rocky appearance at the National Press Club last week, where Wells avoided directly answering questions about his trip to New York. Australian Financial Review He later revealed that the under-pressure minister had traveled to Adelaide on a taxpayer-funded, $3,600 three-day trip in June.
During this trip, Wells attended a friend’s birthday party and official meetings with state ministers.
on friday, Daily Telegraph It was reported that Wells, as minister of sports, made three trips a year to Paris, the capital of France, which hosts the Olympics, at a cost of more than $120,000.
The opposition harshly criticized Wells’ spending; Opposition Leader Sussan Ley declared last week that a trip to New York “will not pass the bar test for any struggling Australian family”.
Ley was forced to resign as health minister in 2017 over his expenses and exercise of authority after purchasing a luxury Gold Coast flat while undertaking official ministerial work following a trip to the Gold Coast.
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James Massola is the chief political commentator. He was previously national affairs editor and Southeast Asia correspondent. He won the Quill and Kennedy awards and was a Walkley finalist. Connect securely to Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect with: excitement or email.
