While the polls are still terrible for the Coalition, the developing furore over Sport and Communications Minister Anika Wells’ use of expenses is a reminder of how quickly politics can change gears.

Wells is in a dreadful position.

Widely seen as a rising star, Wells went straight into the outer ministry when Labor returned to office in 2022. She was in cabinet a couple of years later. She now has carriage of the tricky communications portfolio, in which galactic-sized egos must be managed and competing interests carefully balanced.

Despite being asked numerous times, it is still not clear how Wells, a staffer and a public servant managed to spend about $100,000 on flights to New York to attend meetings at the United Nations, including a special event at which Australia spruiked its world-leading social media ban for under 16s. Those flights are what started this brouhaha, and those questions remain unanswered.

Failing to explain the reason these flights cost so much money was her first mistake.

But it is the sports portfolio and the rules that govern family reunion flights that have caused her the most grief.

From a flight to Adelaide to attend meetings including with SA Health Minister Chris Picton, which happened to coincide with a friend’s birthday party (Connie Blefari, Picton’s wife), to Wells’ family reunions at Thredbo, at Boxing Day Tests, at the Formula 1 grand prix and potentially more – these are the updates keeping Wells in the headlines when she wants to talk about the world-leading social media ban that kicks in from Wednesday.

All of these trips are within the travel entitlement rules.

Yes, she is a high-powered minister with a young family, and nobody asks her to be an old-style politician who never sees their children. That’s why family reunion entitlements exist.

But at a time when Australians are sweating big power bills and huge mortgages and rent demands, it beggars belief that the minister thought it was fine to organise so many family reunion flights with her husband, often for only one day, at some of the nation’s most iconic sporting events.

The latest Resolve Political Monitor spells out just how sensitive Australians are to the high cost of just about everything at the moment: 42 per cent of respondents in the latest poll nominated “keeping the cost of living low” as their number one policy priority, fully 32 per cent above the next highest priority, which was health and aged care.

It’s not like this is a new phenomenon either: in February, the figure was 52 per cent.

The fact that so many of Wells’ family reunions took place in corporate hospitality suites that most Australians will never enter only makes things worse.

This week was supposed to be a triumph for Wells. Instead, it is a trial.

To her credit, the minister fronted up on Sunday to a tough interview with Sky News’ Andrew Clennell. But the strategy did not work as the minister failed to answer probing questions while her staff are now dealing with subsequent revelations.

As my colleague Rob Harris noted last week, “this is a scandal with Velcro. It sticks. It’s the kind of transgression that buries itself into the public narrative of government excess, no matter how well-intentioned the original purpose of the trip.”

If questions on notice to Senate estimates had not unearthed the eye-watering cost of her trip to New York, billed at close to three times the normal cost of a business class return airfare, Australians would have seen the minister everywhere this week spruiking the new social media laws. Instead, she will be unable to hold any media events without facing difficult questions.

Her use of entitlements may well be within the rules – as she keeps reminding Australians – but Wells is fast approaching the point of no return.

Just ask Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

In 2017, when she was health minister, she resigned over her use of travel entitlements even though her use of those entitlements appeared to be within the rules. Adding a side trip to buy a Gold Coast apartment just didn’t cut it.

The record low primary vote of 26 per cent for the Coalition in today’s Resolve Political Monitor is a lagging indicator of what Australians thought of the last month of chaos. But now the Liberals have Wells in their sights, they may gain ground.

Wells is in a similar situation now. She may be able to brazen her way through. But she is marked, with her use of entitlements sure to feature regularly over summer at opposition press conferences and a pile of questions all but assured when parliament returns next year.

Read more on Wells’ expenses

• Rob Harris analysis: The optics on Wells’ $94,000 flights to New York are terrible
• Thredbo ski trip: Nearly $3000 of taxpayer money to bring husband and two children to resort
• Birthday party: Wells attended friend’s soiree during $3600 taxpayer trip
• Three trips for cricket: The $4183.83 taxpayer bill for husband’s flights from Brisbane

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