Communications Minister Anika Wells kept a COMCAR waiting while she attended sporting events on three occasions, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Communications Minister Anika Wells kept a COMCAR waiting while she attended sporting events on three occasions, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars. But the expensive trips are far from outliers for MPs across the political spectrum, dozens of whom have racked up similar bills in recent years. The minister has faced a barrage of queries over whether her use of taxpayer entitlements is appropriate.

Transcript

00:00Well, it's for her use of taxpayer money yet again.

00:07She's been under the firing line ever since the cost of her trip to New York for the United

00:13Nations was revealed to be around the $100,000 mark.

00:17She's since been criticised for her use of family reunion entitlements and flying her

00:22husband and children out to various sporting events that she was working at.

00:27Today, there's a whole new set of questions over her use of Commonwealth cars.

00:33Comcars, the government's provided driver car service, and she is reported to have left

00:40them waiting for hours at a time on several different occasions while she attended sporting

00:45events.

00:46So, she spent around $1,000 on each occasion for the NRL, AFL and Australian Open finals.

00:54Comcars are billed per minute. It's just over $2 a minute, which suggests these cars were

01:00in use and left waiting for at least seven hours on each of those occasions.

01:05That said, these expensive Comcar trips are not unusual for MPs across the political spectrum.

01:13Since 2017, nearly 700 trips have cost more than $1,000. 88 politicians have crossed that

01:21threshold. This year, at the top of the list is Bob Catter, who spent nearly $3,000 on a

01:28Comcar in a day. He's exceeded the $1,000 threshold nine times this year. That said, he does have

01:35a larger allowance because he does have such a large electorate. But even the opposition,

01:40who have been criticising Annika Wells and her spending this week, have racked up their own

01:46bills on Comcars and indeed as well for those family travel arrangements. Shadow Treasurer

01:51Ted O'Brien has been questioned over his use of family reunion entitlements to fly his family

01:58to Newcastle, which he is entitled to do as Annika Wells was. But what this has really brought

02:05about is this question of not so much whether things are within the rules or above board, but

02:12a matter of judgment. And many are saying that Annika Wells has made the wrong judgment in

02:18a lot of these cases. She's by far not the highest spender. She was ranked 34th on family reunion

02:25spending, 17th for international travel and 23rd overall. But she is the one that sort of

02:33lifted the curtain on this revelation of just how much parliamentarians spend. And she's the

02:38one in the firing light of these criticisms for us. Isabella, thank you.

02:42Thanks.

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