A key meeting cited in connection with Communications Minister Anika Wells’ controversial $3,681 taxpayer-funded trip to Adelaide does not appear in another minister’s released diary.
Wells told the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) that she held a “sideline meeting” with South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton at the June birthday party of his wife, Connie Blefari.
According to Wells, the discussion finished at 7.45pm. IPEA accepted that timing as a reasonable basis for her to stay overnight in Adelaide before travelling back to Brisbane.
However, excerpts of Picton’s ministerial diary obtained under Freedom of Information laws do not specifically mention a meeting with Wells.
From 5pm onwards, the diary records “personal affairs” and does not identify Wells by name.
Travel records show Wells flew from Brisbane to Adelaide on June 6, 2025, and returned on June 8.
While in Adelaide, she visited a school and met Trade Minister Don Farrell.
Wells also told IPEA that she had been due to meet Picton on June 7 before attending Blefari’s birthday celebration later that evening.
Chris Picton (left) did not specifically record the “sideline” meeting with Wells in his diary released under FOI laws.
In her submission to IPEA, Wells said the planned meeting was postponed after her discussions with Farrell ran over time. She said the conversation with Picton instead took place during the private function.
The FOI documents, however, make no explicit reference to that meeting.
A 3pm entry is labelled personal and has been redacted. Picton’s diary shows that his only publicly listed official engagement that day was a media appearance about ambulance ramping at the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Wells and Picton have nevertheless rejected suggestions that the missing reference weakens her account of the “sideline” meeting.
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A South Australian government spokesperson told Our News Outlet that the meeting did occur, arguing that the released documents did not provide the complete picture.
The spokesperson said removing names from personal diary entries released under FOI laws was “standard practice”, adding that Wells’ name had been redacted to protect privacy.
“Minister Wells’ Adelaide travel including her meeting with Minister Picton was clearly detailed in the Federal IPEA report in May,” the spokesperson said.
“Exactly as Minister Wells informed IPEA, the Ministers were unable to meet during the day and met during a function that evening.”
A spokesperson for Wells (pictured) said “nothing had changed” from the minister’s evidence to IPEA.
The spokesperson added that personal information, including names, addresses and phone numbers, is routinely removed from documents released under South Australia’s FOI laws.
A spokeswoman for Wells also stood by the minister’s account, telling Our News Outlet that “nothing had changed”.
‘As outlined in the IPEA report, the Ministers were due to meet at this time,’ she said.
The latest questions over Wells’ travel claims come after she became embroiled in a taxpayer-funded travel controversy late last year, when it emerged more than $100,000 had been spent flying her and a staff member to New York to promote the federal government’s social media ban for under-16s at a United Nations event.
The controversy triggered broader scrutiny of Wells’ use of official travel and family reunion entitlements, prompting the minister to refer herself to IPEA for an audit.
The audit found Wells 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 2022 swearing-in and $726 for her husband’s flight home after the 2025 AFL Grand Final.
A 25 per cent penalty loading of $2,023.22 took the total repayment bill to more than $10,000.
