Minister Anika Wells repays more than $10,000 after four travel claims found to have breached rules

Communications Minister Anika Wells has repaid more than $10,100, which includes a penalty, after an audit found she wrongly claimed travel expenses on four occasions.

Wells said said on Friday she was “sorry for making these honest mistakes”.

None of the claims relates to the reported around $100,000 in travel expenses for her and a staffer that created a political storm last year. The trip was to the United Nations in New York to promote Australia’s social media ban.

The audit put the cost at about $90,500 and noted the late confirmation of the travel meant flight options were limited and expensive.

A controversial family trip to Thredbo in June 2025 was found to be within the family reunion guidelines.

After the furore about her travel Wells referred herself to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority that deals with parliamentarians’ expenses claims. She asked the authority to audit all trips between 2022 and 2025.

“The publicly available audit found no misconduct or ethical breaches, ” Wells said in a statement.

“The audit found, over four years of travel, involving nearly 250 separate trips, I made four mistakes.

"These were four cases where I chose what I thought was the more sensible, cheaper option, but those choices were not allowed according to the rules, which I accept and respect.”

The four claims breaching the rules relate to:

• a February 2022 trip by her husband to pick up a child in Canberra when Wells had COVID

• a May 2025 family trip to Canberra to attend Wells’ swearing in

• a September 2025 trip by Wells’ husband from Melbourne to Brisbane after attending the AFL Grand Final with her

• part of the use of a hire car from Toowoomba to Sydney in October 2025.

About $2000 of the money Wells has repaid is the penalty for the breaches.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended Wells. “She has done what the rules require. Anika Wells is a very good minister doing extraordinary work,” he said.

Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson said that Wells “tried to justify her travel breaches by asserting she chose the more sensible, cheaper option shows she is tone deaf to her ministerial obligations”.