A key meeting cited to justify Communications Minister Anika Wells’ $3,681 taxpayer-funded Adelaide trip does not appear in the released ministerial diary of South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton.
Ms Wells told the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) that she held a “sideline meeting” with Mr Picton at his wife Connie Blefari’s birthday party in June last year.
She said the discussion finished at 7.45pm, which IPEA accepted as a reasonable basis for her to stay overnight in Adelaide before returning to Brisbane.
However, documents released under freedom of information laws do not specifically name Ms Wells or record a meeting between the two ministers. Mr Picton’s diary is marked “personal affairs” from 5pm onwards.
Ms Wells travelled from Brisbane to Adelaide on June 6, 2025, and returned two days later. During the visit, she went to a school and met Trade Minister Don Farrell.
She told IPEA that she had originally been due to meet Mr Picton on June 7 before attending Ms Blefari’s birthday celebration that evening. Discussions with Mr Farrell ran over time, she said, meaning the meeting with Mr Picton was delayed until the private function.
The released diary contains a redacted entry beginning at 3pm. Its only publicly listed official engagement that day was a media appearance concerning ambulance ramping at the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
A South Australian Government spokesman said the meeting did take place and argued that the released documents did not provide the full picture.
“It was standard practice to remove names from personal diary entries released under FOI laws,” the spokesman said, adding that Ms Wells’ name had been redacted for privacy reasons.
“Minister Wells’ Adelaide travel including her meeting with Minister Picton was clearly detailed in the Federal IPEA report in May,” he said.
“Exactly as Minister Wells informed IPEA, the Ministers were unable to meet during the day and met during a function that evening.”
A spokeswoman for Ms Wells also defended her account, saying “nothing had changed” from the minister’s evidence to IPEA.
“As outlined in the IPEA report, the Ministers were due to meet at this time,” she said.
The latest questions follow wider scrutiny of Ms Wells’ official travel and family reunion entitlements, after she referred herself to IPEA for an audit.
The audit found that she had incorrectly claimed expenses relating to four trips between 2022 and 2025. IPEA identified $8,092.89 in inappropriate travel and hire-car claims, including $5,513 for family flights taken before her swearing-in in 2022 and $726 for her husband’s journey home after the 2025 AFL Grand Final.
A 25 per cent penalty loading of $2,023.22 brought the total repayment bill to more than $10,000.
