Labor · Lilley (Qld)
Anika Wells
Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport
- On the trail
- $126,092.89
- Found in breach
- $8,092.89
- Rule breaches found
- 4
- Repaid
- $10,116.11
Totals only include items with a published figure. Updated 25 October 2026.
The sports and communications minister whose travel claims triggered the 2025 expenses controversy. The watchdog audited 243 trips, cleared New York and Thredbo, and found four breaches. She repaid $10,116.
In December 2025, reports that Anika Wells had spent more than $100,000 on a three-day trip to a UN event in New York set off the biggest parliamentary expenses controversy since Bronwyn Bishop's helicopter ride a decade earlier. Over the following week, more claims surfaced: a family trip to Thredbo, the Formula One Grand Prix, Comcars left waiting outside sporting finals, and a work trip to Adelaide.
Wells said she had followed the rules, and on 9 December asked the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) to audit her travel. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed her, pointing out that the family travel rules had been written by the previous government.
What the watchdog found
IPEA examined all 243 of her trips from 2022 to 2025. It cleared the trips that drew the most attention: New York, Thredbo, the Grand Prix and Adelaide. It found that elements of four of her 25 trips involving family travel broke the rules, mostly family travel or car hire in the days after her official business had finished. She repaid $10,116.11, including a 25% penalty, and apologised, saying she had chosen what she thought was the cheaper, more sensible option, but accepted those choices weren't allowed.
The audit also changed how bookings work: IPEA now flags high-cost bookings before they're finalised, so politicians can be reminded they're personally accountable for value for money.
What changed for everyone else
The controversy forced a rewrite of the rules for all 227 federal politicians. In January 2026 the Remuneration Tribunal decided:
- family members can no longer fly business class at taxpayers' expense
- family reunion trips to places other than Canberra are limited to one a year
- spouses of senior politicians attending portfolio events get three return economy fares a year
An ABC analysis found federal politicians claimed more than $1.1 million in family travel in 2024-25, with no suggestion those claims broke the rules as they stood. That was the point: the rules themselves were the problem.
The money trail
2026
8 May 2026 · Repayment
Repaid after IPEA's audit: $8,092.89 in travel costs plus a 25% penalty of $2,023.22
−$10,116.11
2025
3 Oct 2025 · Cars and Comcar
Hire car from Toowoomba, returned in Canberra three days later
$644.25
Booked for 74 hours around a Brisbane 2032 meeting in Toowoomba and the NRL and NRLW grand finals in Sydney. IPEA found 41 of those hours weren't parliamentary business. One of four breaches in IPEA's May 2026 audit.
28 Sept 2025 · Family travel
Husband's flight home from Melbourne the day after her AFL Grand Final engagements ended
$726.29
Who: Husband
His flight to Melbourne on 27 September to join her met the rules; the return flight on the 28th didn't, because her parliamentary business had finished the day before. One of four breaches in IPEA's May 2026 audit.
20 Sept 2025 · Travel
Three-day trip to New York to introduce speakers at a UN online child safety event
$118,000
Who: Wells, her deputy chief of staff, and a departmental assistant secretary
About $118,000: business-class flights for Wells and her staffer ($72,592.44), the assistant secretary's flights ($22,236), and about $24,000 for accommodation and transport. Costs rose after Wells stayed in Australia to respond to the Optus triple-zero outage instead of flying with the Prime Minister on the RAAF jet. The Prime Minister approved the trip. IPEA found it within the rules, confirming she had very limited flight options, and now flags high-cost bookings before they're made.
20 June 2025 · Family travel
Family trip via Canberra to Thredbo for Paralympics Australia's Adaptive Festival
No figure published
Who: Wells, her husband and two children
Her family flew with her to Canberra on 20 June and home on 22 June; she drove to Thredbo, met para-athletes and announced Paralympic funding. The ABC reported the family travel cost almost $3,000. IPEA found it met the rules.
6 June 2025 · Travel
Work trip to Adelaide
No figure published
Reported in December 2025 at about $3,700. IPEA found the dominant purpose was parliamentary business (a school funding announcement and meetings with South Australian ministers) and that all resources were used consistently with the rules.
8 May 2025 · Family travel
Family flights to Canberra and a hire car around her swearing-in as communications minister
$5,513.37
Who: Husband and children
IPEA found her parliamentary business ended on 9 May, so using the hire car on 10, 11 and most of 12 May wasn't parliamentary business. Wells told IPEA she had treated the time either side of the weekend as one continuous period, which saved a trip home. One of four breaches in IPEA's May 2026 audit.
2024
22 Mar 2024 · Family travel
Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, with her husband
No figure published
Who: Wells and her husband
She met stakeholders and signed an online abuse charter with Motorsport Australia. Reported in December 2025 at about $1,800. IPEA found the trip met the rules.
Jan 2024 · Travel
Travel to Melbourne around the 2024 Australian Open
No figure published
One of eight politicians in IPEA's review of travel around the 2024 Australian Open, with Michelle Rowland, Don Farrell, Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton, Bridget McKenzie, Anne Ruston and Mark Butler. IPEA found the travel 'not inconsistent' with the rules and took no further action. No cost published.
2022
13 Feb 2022 · Family travel
Husband's Brisbane–Canberra flights to collect a child who had been staying with Wells while she had COVID
$1,208.98
Who: Husband
IPEA found the misreading of the family travel rules was understandable, but the travel wasn't for the dominant purpose of accompanying or joining the minister. One of four breaches in IPEA's May 2026 audit.
2022 · Cars and Comcar
Comcar bookings that ran up significant fares, 2022 to 2025
No figure published
Media reports in December 2025 said Comcars waited for her through sporting finals. IPEA examined the occasions with significant fares and was satisfied she had taken account of value for money. No total published.