Former Health Minister says inquiry shows she did not abuse visits to the Gold Coast

She has already paid a high price — her career as a federal minister — but Sussan Ley today insists an investigation of her taxpayer-funded travel has cleared her.

Sussan Ley says the facts got lost for the sake of a story. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

She has already paid a high price — her career as a federal minister — but Sussan Ley today insists an investigation of her taxpayer-funded travel has cleared her.

Almost completely, in fact, she told Parliament.

“Regardless of these facts, the public impression was cast,” she said. “In politics, I understand the facts can get lost in the search for a good story.”

The former Health Minister told Parliament a Finance Department review found just one outstanding item in records covering three years of expenses.

“This was for a five minute car trip,” said Ms Ley.

“Even so, to avoid any doubt, I had already repaid the entire amount in January this year.”

The car commute was on the Gold Coast when she bought a $700,000 apartment on a “impulse”.

“As I stated at the time, my unplanned purchase of a property changed the character of that trip from business to personal — and I repaid the total cost,” she said today.

Ms Ley said: “I know that the notion of buying a property on impulse may seem quite strange to some and while the purchase of this particular property was on impulse, the decision to purchase a property was not.”

And as for her trips to the resort centre, including two visits for New Year’s Eve parties with a prominent Liberal Party donor, Ms Ley wants to put her travel into perspective.

“During the 703 days I was a Cabinet Minister I spent 15 nights in the Gold Coast,” she said.

Of those 15 nights: six were related to me being the keynote speaker at a conference; six were for major hospital openings and/or sporting events in my capacity as Minister for Health and Sport; two trips involved no more than landing at Coolangatta Airport, using it as a hub, before travelling into Northern NSW on Parliamentary business.

One other visit, apparently, was linked to planning for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Ms Ley resigned on January 14 amid accusations of rorting travel expenses, claiming all the time she had not breached rules.

However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said at the time: “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.

“We should be, as politicians, backbenchers and ministers, we should be as careful and as accountable with taxpayers’ money as we possibly can be.”

Ms Ley today said that as a rural-based minister she had to travel extensively.

“To put this in perspective, as both a minister and cabinet minister for some 1100 days, I spent over half of that time — 684 days to be precise — away from my home electorate,” she said.

“This might seem an enormous amount of travel, but it is explained by two factors. The first is that I had two very busy portfolios, namely Health and Sport. Both of these portfolios have a very substantial number of constituent and interest groups with whom a minister needs to be visible.

“This is a massive workload. I am not complaining; I loved it. I simply raise it as a matter of fact.

“The second factor is that unlike most ministers, I represent a rural electorate.”

Ms Ley said she understood the pressure for her to resign.

“Regardless of these facts, the public impression was cast,” she said. “In politics, I understand the facts can get lost in the search for a good story.”

She said: “I was within the rules in claiming reimbursement for such expenses. However I have always believed in listening to the electorate and one thing became clear to me — the parliamentary expenses guidelines did not align with the community standard.

“And when I reflected on both the community standard as well as the standard I set myself, I decided that standard had not been met.”