Communications Minister Anika Wells clears $4,000 Adelaide trip
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority approved the $4,000 Adelaide trip five months ago.
Communications Minister Anika Wells defended her taxpayer-funded $4,000 trip to Adelaide on Thursday. An independent regulator had already cleared it five months earlier.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority reviewed the travel and confirmed everyone's account matched. Wells said she provided all available documents to IPEA.
IPEA looked at more than 250 of her trips over four years. Questions came up because Trade Minister Don Farrell said he had no documents.
Others could not give records of meetings during the visit. Wells called it one of four honest mistakes among all her claimed trips.
- $4,000
- Trip cost
- five months before public questions
- Regulator approval timing
- more than 250
- Trips reviewed by IPEA
- four honest mistakes
- Errors Wells acknowledged
Why it mattersPublic figures' use of taxpayer money for travel matters because voters fund it and expect honesty about it.
AustraliaAustralian government spending on ministerial travel and the oversight rules that govern it affect public trust in how tax dollars are spent.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 2 h ago
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