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Communications Minister Anika Wells may have sent the Albanese government into a tailspin over her use of parliamentary expenses late last year.

But the saga clearly hasn’t deterred her Labor colleagues from shelling out to discharge their ministerial duties – in line with the rules, obviously – according to fresh data released by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority last week.

Among the biggest spenders on international travel over the March quarter was Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, who expensed an aggregated total of $99,308 for a week-long trip to Japan and the United States, the data shows. About a third of the sum was categorised as “ministerial fares”.

The declared reason was “official travel”, but Marles did not disclose how many staff he took with him on the trip from December 5 to December 12.

“All travel conducted by the deputy prime minister either in his role as defence minister or as acting prime minister is in accordance with the relevant guidelines and security procedures,” a spokeswoman for Marles told CBD.

Another big spender was Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who expensed an aggregated total of $80,093 to travel to Qatar and the US for just three days, from December 7 to December 10 last year, with about half of that sum categorised as “ministerial fares”. Like Marles, the number of employees who joined the senator was not disclosed.

Marles’ and Wong’s international travel coincided with the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations in Washington, DC on December 8.

Wong is also one of the largest spenders in the Labor cabinet on domestic travel, behind only Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. In the latest reporting period, Wong expensed an aggregated total of $198,867.92 for domestic travel.

“The foreign minister was required to travel to the United States to attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” a spokeswoman for Wong told CBD.