Politician, pilot, punk rocker: Sussan Ley, the minister we never knew

SHE was once described as a rising star of the conservative Liberal Party but Sussan Ley’s past is as colourful as she is spendthrift.

Sussan Ley prepares to pilot herself out of Canberra and back to her home town of Albury.

POLITICIAN. Pilot. Punk rocker.

She was once described as a rising star of the conservative Liberal Party but it appears deposed health minister Sussan Ley’s past is as colourful as she is spendthrift.

Ms Ley, 55, resigned from one of the government’s most challenging portfolios last week after revelations of a litany of spending billed to taxpayers, including one of several trips to the Gold Coast where she bought a $795,000 apartment, allegedly on impulse.

In the midst of the scandal, it emerged it was Ms Ley who subjected herself to a lifetime of spelling out and correcting the pronunciation of her given name when, in her teens, she added the extra ‘s’ to the name her parents bestowed upon her, after reading a numerology theory.

But it seems there are a more than a few other surprises contained in the past of the Member for Farrer, who was promoted to health minister by then-prime minister Tony Abbott in 2014.

In a profile of Ms Ley published by Fairfax Media in December 2014, Mr Abbott, not incorrectly, described Ms Ley as having had, “a diverse life before entering parliament”.

Sussan Ley prepares to pilot herself out of Canberra and back to her home town of Albury.

Perhaps the most startling admission the neatly-presented 55-year-old conservative politician made, was that she still describes herself as “a recovering punk rocker”.

At high school in Canberra in the 1970s, she said she sported a dog collar and a nose piercing connected to a razor blade in her ear, along with black lipstick and spiky purple hair.

At 19, she enrolled in flight school and later worked aerial stock-mustering in Queensland, after being rejected for jobs by commercial airlines.

She remains a pilot to this day, something that would later contribute to her downfall, when it emerged she billed taxpayers $13,000 to charter private jets in order to keep her flying hours up to maintain her pilot licence.

But the African-born Ms Ley’s intriguing life began well before her teenage years, as the daughter of a man who worked for British intelligence.

She was born in Nigeria, but shortly after moved to the United Arab Emirates with her family, where she remained until she was 10.

After attending boarding school in England, her family moved to Australia in 1974, first to Toowoomba, then to Canberra, where her father worked for the Australian Federal Police.

After meeting her husband John, a shearer, while aerial stock-mustering back in Queensland, her life suddenly became more mainstream.

Health minister Sussan Ley billed taxpayers to attend a wedding at the invitation of Queensland employment millionaire Sarina Russo.

In 1987, she settled with him on his family farm in northeast Victoria, where they raised three children, and she studied for her masters in taxation and accountancy.

Her life there seemed a long way from the woman who, nearly 20 years later, would purchase a $795,000 apartment on a whim.

“John brought me down to earth, literally,” she said of her now ex-husband in her maiden speech to parliament.

“To stay with him and get to know country life, I became a shearer’s cook.

“When we took over the farm we milked cows for a time, and as (children) Paul, Georgina and Isabel came along we found ourselves coping with the rural recession.

“We have been in the wool industry for 15 years and it has not been easy.

“Times were hard, but we set our goals and we stuck to them.”

Ms Ley gives a press conference in Albury, after the first of her expenses scandals broke. Picture: Simon Dallinger

She won in Farrer in 2001, after gaining Liberal Party preselection to contest the southern NSW based seat vacated by former Deputy Prime Minister and National Party leader, Tim Fischer.

She took her seat on the backbench, where she would return 17 years on, after resighting her position as health minister while maintaining she had done no wrong.

“I am confident that I have followed the rules, not just regarding entitlements but most importantly the ministerial code of conduct, and I do not object to the material that I have provided being made public,” she said.

“Whilst I have attempted at all times to be meticulous with rules and standards, I accept community annoyance, even anger, with politicians’ entitlements demands a response and I wholeheartedly support the reforms announced by the Special Minister of State earlier this week.”

In the wake of the scandal, in which it also emerged Ms Ley charged taxpayers $40,000 in travel to the Gold Coast, including to attend two New Year’s Eve parties hosted by businesswoman Sarina Russo.

Ms Ley’s partner has a business based on the Gold Coast.

The scandal prompted Mr Turnbull to announce the establishment of an independent body that will monitor and adjudicate on politicians’ entitlements.

Ms Ley’s resignation has forced the prime minister to reshuffle his cabinet. The new ministry will be unveiled this week.