Anika Wells has been forced to defend a $4,000 tax-payer funded trip to Adelaide, with the Communications Minister insisting an independent expenses watchdog cleared the travel despite questions over supporting documents.
Ms Wells faced renewed scrutiny over the trip on Thursday morning, with questions raised about Trade Minister Don Farrell’s refusal to provide requested documents and claims other figures involved could not produce records relating to meetings during the visit.
Asked why the documents could not be made public if the trip was legitimate, Ms Wells said the matter had already been revised by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA).
“We have settled this with the Independent Parliamentarians Expenses Authority five months ago,” Ms Wells today the Today show.
“We provided all of the documents to IPEA, to the independent regulator. They confirmed everybody’s documents’ version of events.
“They were satisfied that this trip is within the rules. And they released that report, and all of this information is public, and it was made public five months ago.”
But when host Sylvia Jeffreys challenged Ms Wells’ account, noting Mr Farrell had said he didn’t have the documents and Chris Picton was also said to lack records, the Communications Minister maintained she supplied all the information available to her.
“I’ve provided all the information I have to IPEA, and IPEA confirmed with all parties that those things are what happened on a trip that took several days.”
Ms Wells insisted the Adelaide trip was separate from four “honest mistakes” she had made in the past in relation to other taxpayer funded trips.
“I refer all of my travel to IPEA, which I’m happy to do,” Ms Wells added.
“They reviewed more than 250 trips that I’ve made across the four years. There were four honest mistakes in there.”