Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley has resigned from the front bench amid a travel expenses scandal that raised questions about taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the Minister for Health, Aged Care and Sport said the decision to step down was “personal”.
“I am confident I have followed the rules, not just regarding entitlements but most importantly the ministerial code of conduct,” the 55-year-old wrote.
“The ongoing intense media speculation has made this an incredibly difficult week. However I am conscious that this has also been a difficult week for the government.”
The scandal broke earlier this month when The Herald Sun uncovered that the member for Farrer had spent nearly $12,000 chartering a VIP jet to the Gold Coast for a meeting in March last year.
What followed was a series of revelations about Ley’s travel habits, including that she and her partner purchased a $795,000 investment property on the Gold Coast from a Liberal donor while on a tax-payer funded work trip in May 2015.
The scrutiny took the leap from the press to the parliament on Monday, when Ley agreed to step aside without ministerial pay pending the results of an investigation by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s departmental secretary, Martin Parkinson.
READ MORE: What in the world is going on with Sussan Ley’s travel expenses?
Addressing the media following Ley’s resignation today, Prime Minister Turnbull said, “Australians are entitled to expect that politicians spend taxpayers’ money carefully, ensuring at all times that their work expenditure represents an efficient, effective and ethical use of public resources.”
Prime Minister Turnbull also announced that a new independent body would be created to oversee parliamentary expenses.
“It will monitor and adjudicate all claims by MPs, senators and ministers, ensuring that taxpayers’ funds are spent appropriately and in compliance with the rules,” he said.
Ley’s ministerial replacements will be announced next week.
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Top Comments
Good to hear. It's not their money, they are the custodians of the people's money and the way they waste it is incredible.
Grrr, I am so sick of this.. She was a relatively long standing health minister who was implementing a whole array of significant changes to our health system to improve efficiencies and had built up close relationship with important stakeholders in a vital process. I feel like that has all been thrown away to cater to a 10 second media cycle for an issue that compared to actually making intelligent and informed decisions to improve the health system of our entire country is negligible. And no I don't agree with all the decisions, but surely its better than replacing her with a far less experienced and capable person. The whole parliamentary system is supposed to be about making decisions to govern us as a nation, not to fucking respond to the most popular trending Facebook outrage.. No wonder nothing of worth gets done anymore.. I'm betting Gough Whitlam is awfully glad there was no Twitter around back then.. And so I am.. Totally despairing for our future as a nation when our parliament is so pathetic.. And yes, her behaviour was shitty, and she should be held accountable, but it does awfully seem like we are the ones being punished each time something like this occurs.. Anyone keen to join me in a benevolent dictatorship, we can claim Rottnest as our territory ;-)
She's only been the Minister for Health since Dec 2014, so not a long standing position at all - and from the interviews I've been hearing, she wasn't considered an excellent appointment in the role anyway. I agree with your point that all these staff changes are hopeless for real progress, and of course the 24/7 news cycle and social media is a terrible problem - but I really think MPs need to change this culture of entitlement that has evolved over time into unbridled rorting of the taxpayer, and earn some respect before anyone can trust them to do their jobs.