Australia news LIVE: Wells under fire for fresh travel expense revelation; Reddit expected to challenge government’s social media ban in court

Barnaby Joyce has been doing the media rounds after officially announcing his defection from the Nationals to join One Nation for a tilt at the Senate at the next election, prompting questions about his support for the party’s past policies.

Joyce made the announcement on a Tamworth radio station yesterday, later appearing on Sky News alongside One Nation leader Pauline Hanson during the evening, before an interview on the ABC’s 7.30.

After a delay to sort out some microphone issues, Joyce told the program he and One Nation would be “dealing with the issues as they come before the parliament” but “there’s very much a sort of symbiosis on issues”.

On whether this “philosophical alignment” between Joyce and One Nation meant he supported what host Sarah Ferguson called the party’s “long-running vilification of ethnic groups”, Joyce told 7.30 “I don’t believe that there is a vilification by Pauline Hanson of racial groups”.

Asked if he agreed with Hanson’s statement on Muslims having “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with Australia’s”, Joyce said incompatibilities could be found “if you go to the extremities of Islamic religion, like most religions”.

On how the party’s policy of deporting 75,000 illegal immigrants a year, about 75 times more than current numbers, could be enacted, and whether it meant “ICE-style raids”, Joyce said he was “not going to support keeping illegal immigrants in Australia, because they’re illegal” and “should be going back to where they came from”.

Sport Minister Anika Wells charged taxpayers almost $1000 to have a government-funded Comcar wait seven hours for her while she attended the Australian Open tennis final in January 2023, in the latest example of the embattled cabinet minister’s use of travel entitlements.

It adds to fresh reports yesterday that show Wells billed taxpayers $10,000 to fly her husband to Melbourne for the AFL grand final three times, for the Boxing Day Test two times, and to a cricket event at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Sydney residence.

Scrutiny over Wells’ spending began last Wednesday, when it was revealed taxpayers paid almost $100,000 in flights for the minister and two staff to visit the United Nations in New York in September.

It then emerged she charged $3681 for a work trip to Adelaide that included a friend’s birthday party, $1389 for her husband and two children to join her at Thredbo’s ski fields while she was there for a work event, and $1200 to fly to Melbourne for the F1 Grand Prix with her husband.

Read the full report here.