Sky News explained it analyzed the expenditure summaries of Australian ministers and shadow Ministers who used family travel entitlements between Q3 2022 and Q3 2025 — finding that Labor ministers, during the three years that the government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in office, spent $824,485 (roughly $547.800,00) against the opposition coalition, who spent $574,382.17 (roughly $381,671.00) in that same time period.
Nothing to see here: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended Anika Wells’s indulgent use of taxpayers’ money on travel allowances and flights for herself and her family, saying it is all in accordance with the relevant rules and guidelines. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)
The leading Australian news channel pointed out parliamentary guidelines allow ministers and shadow ministers to claim family travel “if the trips are for parliamentary or official business,” noting the work expenses framework, which states that Australian parliamentarians must use public resources in an efficient “value for money” manner and in “good faith.”
Communications and Sports Minister Anika Wells stands among Labor’s top spenders, using 36,142.90 Australian dollars (roughly $24,000) for family travel. The list of spending reportedly includes flights to her husband to attempt three AFL Grand Finals, trips to the Formula 1 Grand Prix, and several cricket events.
A weekend skiing trip is also on the list of expenditures.
Wells, defending her spending, told Sky News she followed the “usual guidelines” and was “happy for entitlements to be scrutinized.”
WATCH: Further revelations surround Anika Wells’ growing taxpayer-funded scandals
Wells herself is presently at the center of an ongoing controversy surrounding her taxpayer-funded travelling habits. Sky News reported on Monday that an independent review of her travel expenses also found travel expenditures to ski trips, Boxing Day test matches attendances, and several travel and dining expenditures in Paris, France, during the Olympics.
Well’s taxpayer-funded expenses in France reportedly totaled 116,000 Australian dollars (roughly $77,000). Sky News reported last week that Wells also spent 100,000 Australian dollars’ worth of taxpayer funds to travel on a three-day New York trip to promote Australia’s looming social media ban for teenagers — which will go into effect on Wednesday, December 10.
Trade Minister Don Farrell was listed as the top government spender, using roughly $73,000 of taxpayer money in family travel expenditures, some of which include football and tennis matches, and an “exclusive Uluru sunset diner.” Farrell reportedly defended his spending through a statement claiming that his expenses were “in line with the relevant rules and guidelines.”
Sky News explained that Prime Minister Albanese, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, and Resources Minister Madeleine King are some of Labor’s top spenders, each with expenses ranging from about $25,000 to roughly $70,000.
Coalition MP for Dawson Andrew Willcox notably stood as the largest user of tax-payer funded family travels, spending about $82,000 according to Sky News.
The use of thousands of dollars’ worth of taxpayer money for family trips is not limited to Australian ministers.
Senator Fatima Payman has claimed $80,000 in taxpayer-funded family travel entitlements, surpassing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s spending, despite not holding a ministerial portfolio. (Alex Ellinghausen / Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images)
Western Australia Senator Fatima Payman reportedly used nearly $80,000 for family ministers — spending much more than Albanese, and second only to Willcox in family trip spending despite not holding a ministerial position herself.
Payman logged 41 flights between Perth and Canberra and trips to several other Australian destinations over the past three years.
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