Anika Wells bills taxpayers to allow husband to join her at multiple AFL Grand Finals
Shocking revelations have come to light about a Labor debacle involving three Grand Finals that is getting worse by the day.
A clip of Anika Wells celebrating the Brisbane Lions winning the AFL Grand Final alongside her husband, who attended three consecutive deciders at taxpayer expense, has emerged, as daily revelations of her parliamentary entitlement use continue to mount.
The Sports and Communications Minister has been under fire since last week over the use of her travel expenses, including more than $200,000 for work trips to Paris ahead of the Olympics and to New York City for a United Nations summit.
Figures also revealed she spent $3600 to fly to Adelaide where she also celebrated a friend’s birthday, as well as $3000 to fly her family to a Thredbo ski resort during another work event and $1800 to attend the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
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It was revealed on Monday Ms Wells had flown her husband, Finn McCarthy, from their home base in Brisbane to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Finals between 2022 and 2024.
Today it’s beeen revealed she used Commonwealth vehicles to transport her to some of the events. She kept one of them waiting for 10 hours outside while she attended the 2022 NRL and NRLW grand finals, costing taxpayers more than $1200.
He was also in attendance in 2025, but it is not known if he used his wife’s family reunion flight entitlements to be at the major sports event.
A clip has emerged of the couple on the grass of the MCG lapping up post-match celebrations after their team, the Brisbane Lions, defeated Geelong in September this year.
Ms Wells can be seen kneeling on the ground and throwing confetti in the air among a group of kids while her husband wrapped in a Lions scarf stood nearby.
According to records by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, Ms Wells billed taxpayers $2913.68 to fly Mr McCarthy from Brisbane to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final in 2022 before he flew home the next day.
One year later, $3537.15 was spent to jet in her husband and their three kids to the annual event, while $2126.70 of taxpayer cash was forked out in 2024.
If Ms Wells’ travel allowance and flights are added over those three years, the bill to taxpayers is in excess of $16,000.
The tickets to the deciders were gifted by the AFL.
While in 2022 and 2023, she also flew Mr McCarthy from Brisbane to Melbourne to attend the Test cricket series when Australia went up against South Africa.
The flights costs $1885.29. Ms Wells used her family reunion entitlements.
Wells left car waiting for 10 hours, costing more than $1200
Ms Wells also used Commonwealth vehicles to transport her to some of the events.
In 2023, she charged taxpayers almost $1000 while a government-funded car waited for her for seven hours while she watched the women’s final at Australian Open, Nine Newspapers reported.
Taxpayers also footed two Comcar bills of $1288 and $1063 to attend the men’s and women’s NRL Grand final in 2022 and the 2022 AFL Grand Final, according to the ABC.
The Age reports she left a Comcar limousine waiting for nearly 10 hours while she attended the 2022 NRL and NRLW grand finals, costing taxpayers more than $1200.
She also updated her register of interest on Monday to include the free tickets she received for almost a dozen events this year, including the NRL Grand Final.
Nine of the disclosures did not meet the 28-day lodgement deadline.
The Labor MP insists the spending was “within the rules and usual guidelines”.
Family members of politicians are entitled to three return business class airfares, in total, Australia wide, as outlined by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.
A maximum cost of nine business class return tickets for the spouse or nominee of a parliamentarian and three economy class return airfares for each dependent child from their home base to Canberra is also allowed each year.
The opposition has criticised Ms Wells’ use of her benefits as a politician.
But her spending has shone a bigger light on spending by parliamentarians, particularly at a time when Australian families continue to struggle with the ongoing crippling cost of living crisis.
Minister’s shock move in Triple-0 probe
This comes as Ms Wells has refused to front a parliamentary inquiry into an Optus Triple-0 outage linked to the deaths of three people.
The inquiry was told chair Senator Sarah Hanson-Young had written to Ms Wells seeking for her to appear on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, the Minister has declined to appear today,” Senator Sarah Henderson said.
Ms Wells is not bound to appear before the inquiry.
The Communications Minister has faced a bruising week after it was revealed her office spent about $100,000 to fly Ms Wells and some of her staff to the UN in New York.
It was later revealed she also billed the taxpayer $3000 for a trip to Thredbo in support of Paralympians in June in which her family tagged along for a ski weekend.
Ms Wells has defended the cost, stating that “every parliamentarian has family reunion entitlements”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended Ms Wells, telling ABC’s Insiders that “all of the travel was within guidelines”.
The snap inquiry is also examining the death of a Sydney woman and Lebara customer who attempted to dial triple-0 from an incompatible Samsung device but could not do so on November 13.
It was revealed earlier this year that thousands of older Samsung devices were unable to reach triple-0 when attempting to reach emergency services on Optus or Telstra networks from a TPG-connected phone.
Speaking at the inquiry, TPG Telecom chief executive Iñaki Berroeta said he was informed by Telstra on Monday of a second death in Wentworth Falls in NSW on September 24 that could be linked to the triple-0 failure.
He said this was yet to be confirmed with NSW Ambulance.
“That customer was able to contact emergency services via an alternative option after five minutes,” he said.
“Yesterday, we were told that the call might have been made in connection to someone that has passed away.
“We have sought to clarify the circumstances, but the relevant agency has not verified this.”
Mr Berroeta said the phone was unable to call triple-0, but worked five minutes later on the 4G network.
The alternative network used was the National Relay Service.
Mr Berroeta said ACMA had been notified.
Addressing the inquiry, he expressed his “deep regret” for the incident in November.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family,” he said.
“We are committed to taking whatever actions are necessary to prevent this from happening again.”
Mr Berroeta said the incident related to a customer attempting to make an emergency call on a Samsung mobile device on the “shutdown 3G networks prior to the closure of the 3G networks across Australia”.
“We worked closely with all manufacturers to identify models of phones not able to make 4G emergency calls,” he said.
“Based on the information received from Samsung in March 2024, we had determined that the particular device used in this incident was able to make emergency calls over our 4G network also.
“We also had evidence from our network call records of other instances of these models successfully making 4G emergency calls only on November 5, 2025.
“After receiving additional information from Samsung, we identify this particular device required the customer to accept the software update to be able to make emergency calls.
“The customer was notified by text message on November 2 of the urgent need to accept the software update or the device will be blocked on December 10.”
Hundreds of thousands of Samsung devices are impacted by the issue, requiring either a software update to make emergency calls or to be replaced.
— with NewsWire
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