Anika Wells may have breached ministerial disclosure rules by failing to declare her husband’s role at a lobbying firm that donated to her election campaign and operated within her ministerial portfolios.

The firm also drafted material for her official communications, while Wells approved a million-dollar government contract involving one of its clients.

From June 2019 to February 2024, Wells’ husband, Finn McCarthy, worked for SEC Newgate, a federally registered lobbying firm whose clients included organisations connected to sectors overseen by Wells in her roles as Sports and Aged Care Minister.

Under the Ministerial Code of Conduct, ministers are required to disclose changes to their private interests, including a spouse’s employment.

However, Wells’ register of interests made no mention of McCarthy’s role at SEC Newgate during his time at the firm.

Other senior ministers made similar disclosures voluntarily. Mark Butler declared his wife’s work as a self-employed communications consultant, while Chris Bowen disclosed his wife’s former role at Sydney Water. Wells made no equivalent declaration.

Although Wells did not list her husband’s role in her register of interests, her office acknowledged potential conflict risks when she became a minister after Labor’s 2022 election win.

At the time, she stated that ‘internal protocols and handling arrangements’ had been put in place to ensure ‘the highest level of probity.’

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Anika Wells (left) may have breached ministerial disclosure rules by failing to declare her husband Finn McCarthy’s role at a lobbying firm that donated to her election campaign and represented clients linked to her ministerial portfolios

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Finn McCarthy’s (pictured) employment at SEC Newgate was never listed on Anika Wells’ register of interests

But despite that, SEC Newgate donated $1,500 to Labor’s Queensland branch in August 2021 for Wells’ Lilley electorate campaign at a time when McCarthy was employed at the firm.

The lobbying firm McCarthy worked for also represented a number of clients operating in sectors directly connected to Wells’ ministerial portfolios – including aged care provider BESIX Watpac, betting provider Tabcorp, Westpac, Surf Life Saving Australia and the Sydney Swans.

SEC Newgate also lobbied Wells’ office directly on behalf of a provider linked to the Future Fit Program, an $8.74 million government initiative aimed at modernising Meals on Wheels Australia.

SEC Newgate client, the consulting firm Miles Morgan Australia, was awarded contracts by the Morrison government in 2021 to help modernise and restructure Meals on Wheels Australia.

However, despite concerns previously raised about Miles Morgan Australia’s handling of the $7.4 million allocated under the Morrison government, including failures to deliver parts of the Meals on Wheels transition program, Wells approved a further $1.69 million for the consulting firm in 2024.

‘Health did not document whether Miles Morgan Australia’s quoted price was economical, or whether there were other options to achieve intended outcomes,’ a report from the Attorney-General stated.

SEC Newgate also lobbied directly on behalf of Miles Morgan Australia, contacting Wells’ office with advice on how to publicly promote the Future Fit Program.

In July 2023, an employee from SEC Newgate’s Melbourne office emailed Wells’ staff a word-for-word script for a ministerial video message promoting the Future Fit Program to Queensland Meals on Wheels town hall events.

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McCarthy has left SEC Newgate and now holds a government affairs position at Suncorp insurance – which he has been in since 2024

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An SEC Newgate staff member emailed Anika Wells’ office on July 14, 2023, on behalf of their client Miles Morgan Australia

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SEC Newgate provided Wells with a draft script for a Meals on Wheels Queensland Town Hall video. It is unclear whether she used the script.

A separate email also included a pre-written Instagram caption for Wells to post after one of the events, although the caption was ultimately not used.

SEC Newgate told Daily Mail McCarthy had never worked on the Future Fit Program and that a conflict-management protocol had been established and disclosed to the government when Wells was appointed minister. The firm did not address the 2021 political donation.

‘McCarthy was employed by SEC Newgate Australia between June 2019 and February 2024. During his time with the firm, McCarthy’s role was to provide support to clients in Queensland. McCarthy did not work on the Future Fit Program,’ a spokesperson said.

McCarthy has since taken up a highly paid lobbying role at Suncorp, which is listed on Wells’ register of interests.

His role is described as leading engagement with key government stakeholders.

Daily Mail political editor Peter van Onselen said Wells had become a liability for the government and that she needed to resign.

‘Enough is enough. This latest disclosure fail may not be the most serious matter involving Anika Wells, but it adds to a pattern that has become impossible to defend. Ministers are expected to exercise judgment and an instinct for propriety. Wells keeps showing she lacks both,’ van Onselen said.

‘Whether Anika Wells can technically cling to office is now beside the point. She has become an accident prone political liability for Albo. If she won’t resign, the PM should sack her immediately. If he won’t he shares her odium.’

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Wells was ordered by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority to repay $10,116 after a five-month audit found four breaches of parliamentary travel rules across multiple trips between 2022 and 2025.

‘This is no longer about one flight, one declaration or one mistake. It’s about the cumulative effect of repeated poor judgments and dodgy actions by a minister who seems unable to understand what acceptable ministerial behaviour looks like. That makes her position untenable.’

Since Wells became a minister, taxpayers have also covered the costs of dozens of trips and events attended by her husband McCarthy, including flights and related expenses.

Wells charged taxpayers about $7,000 to fly McCarthy to three AFL grand finals.

Wells also billed almost $3,000 for a family trip to Thredbo, where she said she was working at a Paralympics event, while McCarthy and the couple’s three children went skiing.

Tennis Australia gave Wells and McCarthy tickets to the Australian Open finals, while taxpayers covered a $958 chauffeur-driven COMCAR, booked for more than seven hours, to idle for the day.

She also claimed flights for herself and her husband to the 2022 and 2024 Boxing Day Cricket Tests, billing taxpayers for her husband’s $1,885 and $984 same-day return flights under ‘family reunion’ entitlements.

She billed taxpayers almost $1,800 for her and her husband to attend the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix last year, after receiving four free tickets to the event from organiser Motorsport Australia.

Wells has also declared tickets for herself and McCarthy to the AFL, NRL and NRLW grand finals, and an Oasis concert at Accor Stadium in Sydney on November 8.

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Wells received an invitation for herself and her husband to attend the Australian Grand Prix in the chairman’s suite

McCarthy has also taken a number of trips to Canberra that were paid for by taxpayers.

Van Onselen said taxpayers should never have picked up the tab for Wells’ husband travel – even if the trips were within the rules given he was a lobbyist.

‘If your husband is a senior lobbyist on what is presumably a sizeable six-figure salary, taxpayers shouldn’t be picking up the tab for his flights to sporting events. He can pay his own way. It’s disturbing that a Minister of the Crown didn’t have the common sense to see that,’ he said.

‘The optics are dreadful because this isn’t just a spouse travelling with a minister. The minister’s husband works in government affairs as a lobbyist. That makes the disclosure and conflict questions far more serious than an ordinary family-travel expenses story.’

The couple’s precise household salary is unknown, but it would likely be well in excess of $600,000 a year.

Wells’ ministerial salary is $403,064 a year, and Daily Mail understands McCarthy is highly paid at Suncorp.

Wells and McCarthy own significant property assets in Brisbane, including an expansive home in the city’s north within her electorate of Lilley, estimated to be worth around $1.85 million, as well as an additional investment property valued at approximately $1.3 million.

Wells has faced mounting scrutiny since December, when it was revealed she spent $90,000 on a trip to New York to promote the government’s controversial social media ban. The controversy later widened to include a series of taxpayer-funded trips involving members of her family.

She was ordered by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority to repay $10,116 after a five-month audit found four breaches of parliamentary travel rules across multiple trips between 2022 and 2025.

Under the Parliamentary Business Resources framework, MPs and ministers can claim expenses for travel, accommodation and family reunion travel, but only if the spending is primarily for ‘parliamentary business’.

Ministers can claim certain family travel costs if the trip is considered necessary to support ‘family life’ while carrying out parliamentary duties.

Trips involving official events, parliamentary sittings, stakeholder meetings or ministerial duties can qualify under the rules.

However, many of the expenses she claimed were found to be within the rules, including much of McCarthy’s travel.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Wells said: ‘All Ministers comply with the Prime Minister’s Code of Conduct for Ministers. The Minister made the appropriate disclosures.’