This all needs to be viewed through the eyes of a pensioner who can’t afford their power bills and put food on the table. Somebody who would never be able to imagine what it would be like to fly the pointy end.

The family reunion allowance, viewed reasonably, is there to facilitate family connections for MPs when they’re sitting in parliament, in Canberra. Not when they’re going to major sporting events. To say that it’s within the guidelines and to refer spending to the independent umpire, instead of simply copping it on the chin and repaying the money, shows us there’s a chasm between where Wells and the public are on this issue.

To me, the worst of Wells’ misjudgments are the meal and drinks charged to the taxpayer in Paris involving the French ambassador and a couple of public servants. There’s absolutely no way taxpayers should have paid for this and that Albanese thinks it’s appropriate reflects his mindset that it’s worse to lose a minister to scandal than it is to have and follow a basic set of scruples.