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Anika Wells faces travel scrutiny over missing meeting record in diary

New documents show a meeting used to justify Australian Minister Anika Wells' travel was not in another minister's diary.

FTMQ News, written by our newsroom0 views

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Picture: Daily Mail

Australian Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport Anika Wells faces renewed scrutiny over a taxpayer funded trip to Adelaide, the Daily Mail reported. Excerpts from South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton's diary do not record a meeting that Wells cited to justify the travel. [1]

According to the Daily Mail, Wells told the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority she held a sideline meeting with Picton at his wife's birthday party in June last year. She stated that the meeting ended at 7.45pm, which the authority accepted as a reason to stay in Adelaide overnight before returning to Brisbane. The total cost of the trip was 3,681 dollars. [1]

Wells is a member of the Australian Labor Party and represents the Division of Lilley in Queensland. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Wells has served in the Albanese government cabinet as Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport, after previously holding the aged care portfolio. [3][6][8]

The revelation from the released diary excerpts has raised new questions about the travel claims. Neither minister has publicly resolved the discrepancy in the records. [1]

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In short

  • Anika Wells claimed a $3,681 taxpayer funded trip to Adelaide included an official meeting.
  • South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton's official diary does not record the meeting.
  • Wells told expenses authorities the meeting occurred during a birthday party and ended at 7.45pm.

Sources

Every paragraph above points to the numbered items it rests on. Read the originals here.

  1. [1]Meeting used to justify Anika Wells' taxpayer-funded Adelaide trip not recorded in other minister's diaryDaily Mail, 1h ago (the report this story comes from)
  2. [2]Anika Wells to back down on controversial internet powersNews24, 5h ago

Background

  1. [3]Anika Wells on Wikipedia
  2. [4]White House State Ballroom on Wikipedia
  3. [5]Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wikipedia
  4. [6]Anika Wells on Grokipedia
  5. [7]Meeting on Grokipedia
  6. [8]DNC sues Trump administration over taxpayer funded political television advertisements FTMQ News, 3d ago
  7. [9]Canadian funded literary journal publishes poem praising October 7 Hamas attacks FTMQ News, 2d ago

Our newsroom writes these reports with the help of software, from the 9 sources listed and nothing else, and checks them against those sources. Facts can still be wrong or move on; the originals are the record. Spotted a mistake? Write to daniel@monsterkong.com.

Related from FTMQ News

Earlier reports of ours on the same people and subjects.

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