Overview
- Anthony Albanese confirmed his office signed off on last‑minute commercial flights for Anika Wells and two others to attend UN events in New York, and he defended the decision as within rules.
- Parliamentary disclosures show about $94,827 was spent on three business‑class fares after Wells delayed a planned RAAF departure due to the Optus triple‑zero outage.
- The communications department spent about US$45,744 to host a UN event, and Wells met senior executives from Meta, Microsoft and Amazon during the New York visit.
- IPEA records show Wells used family reunion entitlements for a June Thredbo trip that totaled roughly $2,845, which she and the prime minister say met guidelines as the minister worked during the visit.
- New reporting shows more than $4,100 in reunion flights over three years for Wells’s husband to attend cricket events, including two Boxing Day Tests, with the minister maintaining all claims were within entitlements and no breach finding announced.