Diary does not list meeting used to justify Wells’ Adelaide stay

Communications Minister Anika Wells travelled from Brisbane to Adelaide in June 2025 and returned two days later.

She told the parliamentary expenses authority that she met South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton at a birthday party after a planned daytime meeting was delayed.

The authority accepted the meeting’s reported end time as a reasonable basis for Wells to stay overnight.

But Picton’s diary, released under freedom-of-information laws, does not name Wells or specifically record the meeting.

His government says names are routinely removed from personal diary entries and that the meeting took place.

Wells’ office also says her account has not changed.

The issue is part of wider scrutiny of Wells’ travel claims: an audit found inappropriate claims totaling $8,092.89, with a penalty taking the repayment bill to more than $10,000.