Barnaby Joyce lashes Communications Minister Anika Wells for taxpayer-funded trips to Paris, Adelaide and New York

Barnaby Joyce has erupted over new details of taxpayer-funded trips taken by Communication Minister Anika Wells. Last week, it was revealed Ms Wells, along with two officials, spent almost $100,000 on flights attending an event to spruik Australia’s social media ban at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Within days, new reports revealed she spent $3600 on a work-related trip to Adelaide in June, during which she attended a Labor friend’s birthday, and $1300 on her family joining her at Thredbo for Paralympics Australia’s Adaptive Festival. Work-related trips Ms Wells took to Paris from September 2023-24 were further revealed to have cost taxpayers more than $115k, with one of the trips including a dinner with Ms Wells, a staffer and a French official, costing about $1000. Ms Wells, Anthony Albanese and members of the government have maintained that her spending is within parliamentary guidelines. Asked about the nature of her meals in Paris, Ms Wells told Sky News on Sunday: “Honestly, every single meal that I recall, unless it was breakfast at the hotel before we went out for the day, was a working meal. “We were meeting with stakeholders. We were meeting people about work. We’re there to work. “I appreciate it looks a certain way, because it’s Paris, but that is where the Olympic and Paralympic Games were. “I, as the vice president of Brisbane 2032, have a lot of duties to discharge and a lot of opportunities to make sure that Australia makes the most of. “This is a work trip. I was doing work. I’m happy to answer your questions. I appreciate that people want our entitlements scrutinized, that’s why I’m here with you today.” Ms Wells, in regard to her other trips, maintained they were for the purpose of work, and that she “followed the guidelines”. The Prime Minister later told ABC Insiders the work trips taken by Ms Wells were “within the rules”. On Monday, asked whether the rules needed to change, Mr Joyce told Seven’s Sunrise: “Well, no, I’m happy with the rules.” However, he claimed Australians had a problem with the discretion of Ms Wells’ spending. “What people have a problem with is when you go to dinner and charge the taxpayer $1,000 for dinner and then follow it up,” he said. “This is a total train wreck at high speed off a high cliff. “And it’s the issue that, there seems to be no sort of connection between money that she’s spending and the job that she’s doing. “No one denies the job, and I don’t even deny how she flies over, to be honest, but it’s when you get there and start spending money on this dinner and that dinner … it all adds up. “And it’s no longer a question for Anika, to be quite frank. “Everybody’s made their mind up about that. “We know exactly what the issue is … she has done the wrong thing. It’s question for the Prime Minister whether he says, ‘I agree with her doing the wrong thing’.” Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek had earlier defended Ms Wells’ hefty travel bill, in relation to the New York trip, with the importance of her attendance. “I think it was really important that the communications minister was there to talk about our world leading social media ban,” Ms Plibersek said. “She’s made clear that the travel was booked at the last minute, because there was another issue happening in Australia with the triple-0 outages. “I can’t answer for how the airlines charge, they do seem to charge like wounded bulls. “But it was very important that the minister was there.” Ms Plibersek added it was important taxpayers had the right to “demand transparency and demand accountability from government”. “The reason we know these numbers is because they’re all transparently reported and all within the guidelines,” she said.