Update 13.01.17:
Sussan Ley has resigned as Health Minister, despite claiming she’d not broken any rules with regard to taxpayer-funded trips.
It comes as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the creation of a new body to oversee parliamentary expenses.
“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,” he said.
“We should be, as politicians, backbenchers and ministers, we should be as careful and as accountable with taxpayers’ money as we possibly can be.”
Turnbull said Ms Ley’s replacements would be announced next week. Arthur Sinodinos will stay on as Acting Health Minister until then.
Original story:
Health Minister Sussan Ley will stand aside without pay while she’s investigated over her use of taxpayer-funded trips.
Ms Ley has come under mounting pressure over travelling to the Gold Coast at the taxpayer’s expense, including two jaunts to the Gold Coast for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he’s asked the secretary of his department to investigate her travel claims and she will stand aside without ministerial pay until the investigation is complete.
“I expect the highest standards from my ministers in all aspects of their conduct, and especially the expenditure of public money,” he said in a statement.
Along with allegedly claiming travel costs to the Gold Coast for New Year’s Eve celebrations two years in a row, she also purchased a $795,000 unit on the Gold Coast.
On Sunday she apologised and vowed to pay back expenses for a 2015 trip to Queensland, during which she bought the apartment in Main Beach.
Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King has called on Ley to publicly explain:
“It would seem unusual to have official business on New Year’s Eve,” she told ABC Radio.
Ley said she has spoken with the Prime Minister about the “error of judgement”, saying she’s spent the last two days examining her travel records. Apparently she noticed another two questionable claims.
All Ms Ley’s travel expenses are now under investigation.
