Topics: Anika Wells repeatedly misusing taxpayers’ money
Luke Grant: Senator Sarah Henderson, the Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety, joins me on the line. She’s had a bit to say about this today. G’day, Sarah, nice to chat again. How do you justify $300 for a 3km car ride? I mean, we’re being taken for a ride, aren’t we?
Senator Henderson: Luke, good morning, and we are being taken for a ride. This is just another example of Anika Wells showing complete disregard for taxpayers’ money. I have previously called for the Prime Minister to stand her down after she flew to Adelaide for a friend’s birthday party, and could not explain or justify how she could be having a ministerial meeting at this particular event, and the minister, of course, was a friend’s husband, so the whole thing is a joke. The Prime Minister keeps turning a blind eye when one of his own Ministers treats taxpayers’ money like her own personal expense account, and these revelations today are just another example of that.
Luke Grant: So she’s been blaming unexpected delays. I think one of the trips she was at, I don’t know if it was a dinner or something, with a New Zealand official. But it’s almost like, oh well, the driver can wait, no dramas there. If it were you and I in our real lives, if we’d arranged for a car, the idea that we’d spend a, you know, two or three times a fare on waiting, you just say, look, sorry, here’s your fare, go away, but there’s just no care for the taxpayer in any of this, is there?
Senator Henderson: There’s absolutely no regard, and this is a minister, of course, who is found to have breached her travel expenses on four separate occasions by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority. Now, IPEA ordered Anika Wells to repay more than $10,000 but we’ve also had many other examples where she has just flagrantly abused her role as a minister, $115,000 for three trips to Paris, lavish meals, one meal, including alcohol cost around $1,000. We had the $100,000 trip to New York. Basically, she did a photo-op and gave a three-minute speech on the social media ban, which as we all know, is not working as intended. But over and over again, this minister keeps misusing taxpayers’ money, and the time has come where this Prime Minister must act.
The Prime Minister keeps looking the other way. There are many Labor members and senators who are quietly saying, when will this stop? Why is this minister being propped up by a Prime Minister who clearly does not care about the cost of living crisis that so many Australians are enduring, whether it’s caused by Labor’s housing crisis, its immigration crisis, its attack on older Australians, its shocking, lying, fraudulent budget, which has attacked young Australians more than anyone else, and yet we see the Prime Minister just flagrantly turning a blind eye to these not just transgressions. I would say that in some cases these are blatant rorts, and this minister must go.
Luke Grant: You see, I’ve got listeners saying, well, just be thankful that she didn’t take a plane for the 3km trip, and I suppose I can see the humour and all of that, but if you got a 2.3km trip from Kingston to Capital Hill at nearly $250, or a 6km ride from Kingston to another place that cost $290, what do you do in those circumstances? What would you do in those circumstances? What’s acceptable in those circumstances?
Senator Henderson: Well, different members and senators have different arrangements. I have my own car in Canberra, so I generally would use my own car. So, there is a question in that regard as to if Anika has her own car, why she’s not using it. We have a shuttle where there is basically no cost charged to members and senators, meaning that’s a shuttle of cars that runs after hours on every night that parliament sits. So, I can’t work out why she has ordered Comcar for all of these different trips. But just look at it, $337 for a 3km trip. There was another one, $291 for a 5km trip. Then there was $329 for a 2.3km trip. That was $54 per minute. $290 for a 6.5km trip, $248 for a 2.3km trip. I mean, these trips are just a flagrant misuse of taxpayers’ money, and as I say, this is all happening on Prime Minister Albanese’s watch. Why is he continuing to tolerate these flagrant abuses of taxpayers’ money?
Luke Grant: You know what a listener just said, Sarah, the trip from Kingston to Capital Hill, it cost $248 that’s the equivalent of the PMs much lauded tax cut this year. Gee, that puts a bit of perspective around things, doesn’t it?
Senator Henderson: And that doesn’t count the way that that’s going to be eroded because of inflation, of course. So that’s right. I mean, every single taxpayer dollar is precious and we have a government which is flagrantly overspending, which is driving up inflation, which is driving up interest rates, which is making all Australians poorer. And as for this lying, thieving Budget, which is the worst Budget that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, frankly, this is a government that does not care and clearly this Prime Minister is not willing, so far, to accept responsibility for the acts of his minister.
It is time, Luke, that the Prime Minister said enough is enough because Australians are saying enough is enough. This is a never-ending saga, which continues to expose the Albanese government’s sense of entitlement, the secrecy, and the arrogance. So I say to this Prime Minister, please stop running a protection racket for your ministers. This is just simply disgraceful. It is not good enough. I mean, families are going to the grocery store, and they’re thinking, how can I have enough money to literally buy dinner?
Luke Grant: Damn right.
Senator Henderson: With $100 can barely buy enough food for 24 hours, and yet this minister is just wasting taxpayers’ money hand over fist, and it is disgraceful. And we still have no answers. I mean, it is clear she keeps on saying, oh, look, we had the audit with the Parliamentary Expenses Authority, and I was cleared in all but four occasions. I do not believe that she has told IPEA the full truth, and the trip to Adelaide for the birthday party, where I believe she concocted other ministerial or parliamentary meetings just to justify putting that on the taxpayer’s purse is disgraceful. Imagine saying, oh I was meeting the South Australian Minister, Chris Picton, her very old mate – at the birthday party of Chris Picton’s wife, not disclosing any details about this so-called ministerial meeting, the whole thing is concocted. It is a rort and as I say, it is time this prime minister took responsibility, stood down the minister, and fully investigated these sorts of matters.
Luke Grant: Yeah, well said. Nice to chat, Senator. Thanks so much for your time.
Senator Henderson: Wonderful to talk to you. Thanks so much, Luke.
Luke Grant: It’s a pleasure. Senator Sarah Henderson, who’s the Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety.