Anika Wells claimed more than $8,500 for family travel to Melbourne during AFL grand final weekends over three years | Australian politics
Anika Wells claimed more than $8500 for her family’s travel expenses to Melbourne during AFL grand final weekends in 2022, 2023 and 2024, where she received complimentary suite tickets for matches.
The Communications and Sport Secretary has stood by his use of family travel expenses within the rules, but the Coalition opposition is demanding reform of the spending rules and an investigation into Wells’ spending by the Independent Parliamentary Expenditure Authority, the parliamentary body that monitors and reports on politicians’ travel and office spending.
On Monday, newspaper Nine reported that Wells had flown her husband from Brisbane to Melbourne for Boxing Day cricket test matches in 2022 and 2024, using family travel rights available to all MPs to help politicians stay in touch with their families.
It followed scrutiny of Wells’ use of the right to fly family members to the Thredbo ski resort and the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix, as well as travel to France for sporting events, Adelaide for meetings coinciding with a friend’s birthday, and nearly $100,000 in airfare for the minister and two staff to fly to New York City.
As sports minister, Wells is invited by stakeholders to numerous major matches and tournaments, and for the vast majority of them, he does not charge family travel expenses.
But Guardian Australia can reveal, following analysis of Wells’ parliamentary interests records and IPEA reports, that Brisbane-based Wells is demanding taxpayers fly family members to Melbourne on the weekends of AFL grand finals in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The registration of interest declares “2 x Corporate Suite tickets to the 2022 AFL Grand Final as a guest of the AFL” on 24 September of the same year. The IPEA report for the period shows a “family traveler” spend of $2,913.68 for travel from Brisbane to Melbourne on September 24 and from Melbourne to Brisbane the following day.
Wells advertised “2 x Suite tickets to the 2023 AFL Grand Final as a guest of the Australian Football League” in its interest register in 2023. This match, held on 30 September, accounted for four family travel expenses for travel between Brisbane and Melbourne on 27 September and back from Melbourne to Brisbane on 1 October. The total bill for the four expense claims was $3537.15.
In 2024, Wells declared “2 Tickets to the 2024 AFL Grand Final – Guest of the AFL” in the logbook. That year’s game was held on September 28. Wells claimed $2,126.70 for a family trip from Brisbane to Melbourne on September 28 and returning to Brisbane the same day.
The total bill for the family trip to Melbourne, which coincided with the AFL grand final weekend, was $8577.53.
Wells’ office has been contacted for comment.
According to IPEA, family travel rules allow for nine business class return airfares to Canberra annually for an MP’s spouse or candidate, plus three economy tickets from their home city for each child. For travel to destinations outside Canberra, MPs are allowed to request a total of three round-trip business class airfares for each family member.
There is no allegation that Wells violated these rules.
According to IPEA’s website, “Family reunification travel is accessible where: the parliamentarian is traveling predominantly for the purpose of conducting parliamentary business and the family member(s) are traveling to accompany or join the parliamentarian and the travel is for the dominant purpose of facilitating the parliamentarian’s family life.”
In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, the minister defended his use of travel allowance for his family’s trip to Thredbo, saying he was “exercising my right to family reunification within the guidelines, as any parliamentarian would”.
Speaking to the ABC, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also backed Wells’ trip to the United Nations and Thredbo, saying the trips were to promote the government’s leading global social media ban on under-16s and to announce funding for Paralympic sport, respectively. Albanese responded to the question about the family’s travel expenses: “Family reunification rights are available. All travel was within the rules.”
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic called on Wells to send travel expenses to IPEA.
“This doesn’t meet society’s expectations. My view is that Australians think it’s OK for parliamentarians to actually be able to spend time with their families. But this is a very different scenario.”
Shadow comms Melissa McIntosh called for travel rules to be reviewed and parliament to “tighten” them.
“As far as the minister is concerned, you can’t just say that in the guidelines when your husband goes to cricket and F1 with you… that’s not what’s actually meant,” he told 2CC radio.
“I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt when her kids, you know, she became a mother too, but now that I’ve seen her husband go into F1 and cricket, I’ve probably lost my support for her on those things.”
