Topics: Anika Wells’ travel expenses, Federal Budget
Stephen Cenatiempo: Alright, time to talk federal politics with the Shadow Minister for Communications, Senator Sarah Henderson. Sarah, good morning.
Senator Henderson: Stephen, a very good morning to you.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Now, I want to talk about – you’ve been like a dog with a bone for this, as you should be – the behaviour of your counterpart, Anika Wells, the Minister for Communications, and her travel largesse is probably the best way to describe it. This is, as you’ve described it, a never-ending saga. We’ve now had one of her travel claims, where she went to celebrate the birthday of the wife of a South Australian Liberal Minister.
Senator Henderson: Labor minister.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Labor minister sorry – Chris Picton – who was having a party for his wife and claims now she had some official meeting while she was there, but he’s thrown her under the bus and said no, it was a birthday party – we might have had a chat, but that’s about it.
Senator Henderson: Well, this is a really serious situation, of course Anika Wells has been found guilty of four separate breaches of her travel expenses and ordered to pay back more than $10,000 by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, IPEA. Now, the Prime Minister backed her in last Friday, but he now has no choice, Chris, oh, Stephen – sorry I’m getting my people mixed up. Stephen, it’s a very big day, budget day.
The Prime Minister now has no choice. He must stand down Anika Wells and investigate this trip to Adelaide because it looks as if she has not been truthful to the expenses authority. She originally said she was meeting with Chris Picton, the South Australian Labor Minister, in the afternoon, on the Saturday afternoon. Of course, he was hosting a birthday party for his wife that evening. She’s now told IPEA in its five-month audit – oh no, I couldn’t do that meeting but we had a sideline meeting at an event that evening – of course, that event was the birthday party.
Now, with Anika Wells sort of slinking off in a side room over a glass of champagne, meeting with Chris Picton on official ministerial business, this not only does not pass the pub test. But if she – as it’s very clear to me and many others – if she’s been caught out not telling the truth to the expenses authority, this is a very serious breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. Now, there is no choice for this Prime Minister. If this Prime Minister is going to give Australians basic respect, show that he cares about taxpayers’ money, about accountability and about transparency, and we know time and time that he has not shown that basic respect, he has no choice but to stand her down and investigate.
Stephen Cenatiempo: We’re going back a long way here but during the very early stages of the Howard government in 1996, and it was called the travel rorts affair, and a bunch of ministers lost their jobs over this exact same thing. The majority that this government got is very similar to what John Howard had in 1996, but there seems to be a level of arrogance here that says – we’ve got 94 seats, we can do whatever we like.
Senator Henderson: There is an absolute level of arrogance by this Prime Minister, but the buck stops with him now. Of course, with Chris Picton initially yesterday saying he would not corroborate the story because, of course, what it looks like has happened here is that she’s concocted this so-called trip – a ministerial business trip to Adelaide – to attend a friend’s birthday party. And now the minister initially declined to corroborate the story. He has made some very brief comment to The Adelaide Advertiser saying, oh, yes, we had some chat. Well, that doesn’t add up either because she can only have her expenses paid if she’s on official ministerial business. This is really serious. This doesn’t just involve some thousands of dollars. This involves the integrity of the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister is serious about being the Prime Minister, about upholding these standards – the Ministerial Code of Conduct is a very serious obligation – then he must stand her down and he must stand her down today.
Stephen Cenatiempo: The thing that really, really offends me about this Sarah, and good on you for chasing this the way you have over time, is that it’s not only the arrogance and the middle finger at the Australian people that says, I’ll spend your money however I like, but it’s not like this minister is performing particularly well in her portfolio either. We’ve talked about the failures of this social media ban and the various problems with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner on Anika Wells’ watch. You know, if she was doing a good job as minister, you might let this slide but when you’re not getting the job right and you still think you can rort the system, what does that say about your feelings towards the Australian people?
Senator Henderson: Well, Stephen, it really doesn’t matter how good a job she’s doing. This is beyond the pale. The Prime Minister must stand her down. This is, as I say, an egregious breach of ministerial standards, but you’re right, she’s been a very poor performing minister. She did a terrible job as the Aged Care Minister; we know she’s created a complete and utter mess for older Australians. But whether it’s the social media ban, whether it’s the shocking Australia Post fuel levy – that’s a 306 percent increase on some 30,000 businesses across the country – she did nothing about that whatsoever. Even the News Bargaining Incentives – so she released an exposure draft for legislation to pay these media companies across Australia who are struggling to survive in the face of the tech giants, but that’s a complete debacle as well, because it looks like the tech giants are going to walk away and just pay the penalty and the legislation just isn’t up to scratch. Everything she touches in her communications portfolio turns to mush. Of course, there’s been the axing of the Mobile Black Spot Program. She’s got a bill before the parliament at the moment where regional Australians have been left high and dry, so, she has done a very poor job in her portfolio.
But this is beyond the pale. This cannot in any way be overlooked by the Prime Minister. He tried to do it on Friday. He should have stood her down on Friday, but now he has no choice. He must act or, frankly, the Prime Minister needs to consider his position because it is just not sustainable that he can allow his ministers to blatantly breach the Ministerial Code of Conduct without any repercussions.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Well, you know, and I guess on the Prime Minister’s part, we see a lot of wasteful travel go on, but at least it is for official purposes. But, you know – and most people would understand that if there’s a conference you know, APEC or something like that, a lot of meetings do happen on the sidelines – but that’s not a birthday party.
Senator Henderson: Well, that’s right. And the rules are very clear. Ministers and any member of Parliament must travel for official parliamentary or electorate business or in the case of ministers, ministerial business and the dominant purpose must be for official business. And so as I say, it looks like Anika Wells has created a couple of so-called meetings around the fact that she wanted to attend this birthday party in Adelaide and the dominant purpose of her going to Adelaide is to attend the birthday party. Now, if she wants to go to a birthday party on a Saturday night in Adelaide, that’s fine, but not at the expense of Australian taxpayers.
And it’s also been revealed overnight, Stephen, because they’ve leaked out a couple of things to the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper. Her office has backgrounded the fact that she didn’t claim for accommodation on the Saturday night. Well, that’s in some ways even worse because it makes it look like she was guilty. It makes it look like, well – I’m not really entitled to stay in Adelaide on the taxpayer’s purse on the Saturday night, so I won’t claim from my accomodation. But when I travel back to Brisbane the next day on the Sunday, I will certainly charge the taxpayer for a return business class airfare. So the whole thing is a complete and utter joke. And this Prime Minister cannot continue to stand by Anika Wells.
Stephen Cenatiempo: But the average punter out there who’s struggling to put fuel in their car, Sarah, looks at this and says, now, and I’m not one of these people who think that politicians should earn minimum wage. I mean, I know there’s people out there that think you guys are paid too much, but we are talking about a minister who’s paid over $300,000 a year and won’t put into her own pocket a few hundred bucks for an airfare to Adelaide and back. I mean what does that say when, you know, most of us out here are struggling to put fuel in our car so we can get to work to feed our families?
Senator Henderson: Well, look, Australians deserve accountability, they deserve transparency and they deserve cabinet ministers who treat taxpayers’ money with absolute respect. And they certainly do not have that from Anika Wells. She must stand down. The Prime Minister must investigate. You’re right, Stephen. Australians are suffering like never before through the government’s excessive spending, which is driving up inflation, driving up interest rates, the highest government spending in 40 years outside the pandemic and a recession. And that, of course, is causing so much hardship for young Australians, for families, for older Australians, for small businesses.
Australians have endured now 15 rate rises under Labor. Families are paying around $29,000 more a year on a typical mortgage. Debt is racing towards $1 trillion. Australians are paying around $50,000 a minute just to service that debt. This economy is going off the rails. Australians can feel it, they can see it. Jim Chalmers is so incompetent, this Prime Minister is incompetent. He’s a fraud, he’s a liar. We’re now seeing it in how the economy is being so badly mismanaged, and that is why we have to get these guys out of government. They are ruining our country, Stephen. They are ruining our country day by day. And of course, this is what’s happening tonight. We are in for a shocker of a budget tonight. We are in for a shocker where they are going to hit Australians with a budget of broken promises, blatant lies, higher taxes, because they do not know how manage the economy and Australians are paying a very, very high price.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Now that you’ve depressed me, Sarah, I’m going to bid you farewell. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Senator Henderson: Great to talk to you.