Passing the pub test

Cabinet Ministers Michelle Rowland and Anika Wells have referred their use of their Family Reunion entitlement to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority following pressure from the Coalition and the talking heads that generate content for various conservative media outlets. The claim is that although the claims might have been within the guidelines, they don’t pass the ‘pub test’.

Wells and Rowland claim they are within the rules and in all likelihood they are, but by the time the Authority reports back their reputations will be tainted by the accusations and the world will have moved on. On the face of it, it is unsurprising that the Sports Minister would attend the AFL Grand Final or a Ski Competition in the Snowy Mountains and the Family Reunion entitlement is there so that Members of Parliament can actually see their families around work commitments. 

The reality is that most of Australia has an expectation that our politicians reflect society at large, so we need to have representation from older, younger, immigrant and first nations communities. One of the disadvantages of representation from younger people is typically between the 20s and the 40s people are juggling work, potentially additional study and bring up their children. While being away in Canberra for the week followed by the weekend at the AFL grand final then the NRL grand finals and then a cricket test match in a matter of weeks sounds glamorous, there is a lot of preparations, packing and living out of a suitcase involved which interferes with being there (at home) for your children. Thats not to mention all the side trips to the Upper Timbucktoo Little Athletics Club who invited the Minister to see the new gym mats being used for the first time because the mats were bought with a government grant.

As a nation we have a choice. Assuming we want a representation from the broad demographics that make up Australia (yes, that includes even ex-fish and chip shop proprietors from Ipswich Qld). There is a cost to that. Nine Newspapers reported this week that the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority released data on expenses recently

The authority’s data shows Wells’ expenses on family travel came to $43,026 – the 28th-highest of parliamentarians. Wells was outranked in family travel spending by fellow ministers Farrell and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, as well as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, former opposition leader Peter Dutton, and 20 MPs from WA, the Northern Territory and regional Queensland, who generally accrue higher travel costs as they move across and from big remote electorates.

In the same report, it is also noted that Wells and Rowland both have young families. And they aren’t the only ones

While the Coalition is mounting a political argument about Wells’ judgment calls on several of her expenses, several opposition MPs have also spent thousands taking family members across the country while they attend events.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, for example, charged taxpayers $6581 for family flights between Perth Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin and Newcastle over a week in April this year as she travelled across the country for election campaign events. She is the eighth-highest spender on family travel in the parliament.

Nationals MP Anne Webster, from the Victorian regional electorate of Mallee, ranked 30th in family travel spending and spent $2976 for a family member to accompany her for a four-night trip to Perth for the World Transplant Games in April 2023, where she also claimed $1676 in travel allowance. Webster attended as a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Organ Donation group.

On a separate three-night trip to Sydney in October 2023, Webster claimed $2253 in family flights, but only claimed one night travel allowance for parliamentary business after attending a migration conference. Webster’s office declined to comment.

So why are the Coalition going after Wells? If the argument is that the Family Reunion Entitlement is some obscene ‘pollies feeding from the trough’ scheme, while the Coalition is claiming the high moral ground here – they have a problem. A number of their politicians claim far more from the scheme that Wells (or Rowland) have done. Is there some jealously that Wells family apparently attended a number of high level sporting events – despite it being expected that she be there as she is the Sports Minister? Is it that Wells is demonstrating that she is indeed competent at her job by delivering the legislation around he Under 16 Social Media Ban and gaining compliance from a number of the large foreign owned social media companies, as well as working through the various occasions where mobile phone services have been disrupted by software ‘glitches’ that have cost people’s lives?

Or is it to distract attention from the reasonably successful start of the Social Media Ban for children and deflect comment from the court case where former high profile Coalition Minister Lynda Reynolds effectively bankrupted the young mother that was ‘on the balance of probability’ raped in the ministerial office by one of Reynold’s staff. Now – does that pass the ‘pub test’?

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