STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (13:35): Another day, another scandal involving the Albanese government's most frequent flyer—and we've got the receipts. Last year, the Minster for Communications, Anika Wells—Labor's Deirdre Chambers—billed taxpayers $4,000 for business class flights to Adelaide for a trip which conveniently coincided with her friend's birthday.

What a coincidence! When questioned, the minister claimed she had an official meeting with South Australian Labor minister Chris Picton on the afternoon in question. According to Minister Wells, an early engagement ran over time, so this official meeting was pushed back to a sidebar at the 40th birthday party of Minister Picton's wife held in a pub.

Apparently this meeting concluded at 7.45 pm, so the minister simply had to stay the night—just in time for the birthday cake and cocktails. Well, I decided to investigate. I lodged an FOI request for Minister Picton's diary.

Guess what. There is no record of an official meeting with Labor's Minister Wells—none, zip—not at the birthday party and not earlier in the day. So, is she telling the truth?

If an official ministerial meeting had genuinely been scheduled, why wasn't it recorded in his diary? Why has the minister continued to refuse to answer questions concerning this misuse of taxpayers' money? This is the same minister who has already had to repay $10,000 back for wrongly claimed travel expenses.

This is the same minister who billed taxpayers to take her family on a ski trip. This is the same minister who blew $118,000 on a trip to New York. The minister treats taxpayers' money like her own.

Well, actually she just treats taxpayers' money like it's someone else's money, which it is. It's time the Prime Minister sacked this incompetent, fiddling minister. Guess what.

If it smells, it's Wells.