Joint Media Release | The Prime Minister for too little, too late finally caves on family travel allowance | 23 December 2025

Joint Media Release

The Prime Minister for too little, too late finally caves on family travel allowance

23 December 2025

Today’s announcement from the Prime Minister on changes to the family travel

allowance is a tacit admission that he, Anika Wells and Michelle Rowland presided over

a rotten culture of entitlement and arrogance.

This is a government that has treated taxpayer funds as a personal expense account at

every turn.

Let’s not forget that the Prime Minister told us this was not his responsibility. This

announcement proves that once again he lied to Australians.

Tinkering with rules does not remove the need for a full and proper investigation by the

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet into whether the Ministerial Code of

Conduct has been breached.

We will examine the detail when it is actually provided, noting the Prime Minister once

again briefed the media before his own parliamentarians, and only after sustained

pressure from the Opposition which has been driving reform for weeks.

It has become a clear trend of this government to avoid any blame or wrongdoing until

they are forced, kicking and screaming, to make changes following sustained pressure

from the Opposition and the Australian public.

The Prime Minister is always too little and too late.

ENDS