Sussan Ley can thank prime ministerial timidity – and the requirement for natural justice – for having to stand down as the Minister for Health pending an investigation of taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast rather than being sacked outright. Ms Ley has admitted that her travel claim for a side trip from Brisbane to the Gold Coast in May 2015 – during which she bought an apartment for $800,000 – "did not meet the high standards he [Malcolm Turnbull] expects of ministers". She's promised to reimburse taxpayers for the travel and accommodation costs of this trip, as well two others to the Gold Coast in 2014-15.
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Ms Ley has made at least 20 taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast since becoming health minister in September 2013, some of them accompanied by her husband, who runs a business there. On May 9, 2015, she travelled to Brisbane for a cancer drug announcement, then flew to the Gold Coast to meet patients regarding access to new medicines. It was decided Ms Ley would overnight at the Gold Coast instead of travelling back to Albury (in her electorate) and then returning to Canberra the next day. Such contingency planning is routine for politicians travelling on parliamentary or ministerial/electoral business. Official business concluded, Ms Ley later attended a property auction where she made a winning bid for a two-bedroom apartment.
A blurring of the official and the personal is a normal consequence of business travel, and buying an apartment while on a taxpayer-funded business is arguably nothing out of the ordinary – and certainly not an egregious infringement of ethical standards. However, Ms Ley's defence of the apartment purchase as "not planned or anticipated" drew cynicism, if not by outright disbelief, from sections of the media. She further damaged her credibility by refusing to give details of her meeting with patients.
That politicians are granted some leeway with respect to their travel entitlements is reasonable given their need to travel extensively within their electorates, and, if they're ministers, to journey around Australia. Time and again, however, politicians have shown themselves to be less than scrupulous in ensuring the legitimacy and accuracy of their claims, inevitably bringing them (and the institution of parliament) into disrespect.
It's for that reason Malcolm Turnbull laid out a code of ministerial standards in September 2015 which explicitly stated that "ministers must be scrupulous in ensuring the legitimacy and accuracy of any claim for entitlement to ministerial, parliamentary or travel allowance". It remains to be determined if Ms Ley has been in insubstantial or material breach of these standards. However, her carelessness has ensured that Mr Turnbull is off to the worst possible start to the new political year.
A leader with more control in the Liberal partyroom may have insisted she resign. Giving Ms Ley the benefit of the doubt, however, may well end up weakening Mr Turnbull's authority further.
