Can Anika Wells ever set foot inside a sports stadium again? Australians love to boo a politician at the footy. John Howard was regularly heckled when he turned up at sporting events, and every subsequent prime minister has, sooner or later, copped it, too.

Wells, our federal sports minister, might not be prime minister but her days of attending major sporting events are surely done. Can you imagine the reception she would receive if she turned up at the Boxing Day Test this year, with or without her husband?

Illustration by Simon Letch.Credit:

Anthony Albanese has made being boring a virtue: stolid, predictable, no alarms and no surprises, and that has worked well for 3½ years. That is what makes the Wells expenses scandal – which has now spread to other MPs from all sides of politics – so surprising. Albanese prides himself on being able to read the national mood. He is (mostly) very good at it, though the Voice was an exception.

And on this issue, Albanese is profoundly wrong. Every time the prime minister and sports minister insist the spending was within the rules, they should stop for a moment and remember that the minimum wage in Australia is $948 per week. Wells charged taxpayers more than that, on more than one occasion, so a taxpayer-funded Comcar could wait for her while she attended Australian Open and NRL finals.

It might be within the rules, as we keep being reminded, but the rules are too generous.

Wells belatedly asked the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority to audit her expense claims, and........

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