Sussan Ley

Early years and background

Ley was born in Kano, Nigeria to English parents. When she was one year old, her family moved to the United Arab Emirates, where her father worked as a British intelligence officer. Ley attended boarding school in England until she was 13, when her family migrated to Australia. Her parents bought a hobby farm in Toowoomba, but quickly sold it due to a crash in beef prices. They then moved to Canberra, where her father worked for the Australian Federal Police. She was educated at Campbell High School, Dickson College, La Trobe University, the University of New South Wales and Charles Sturt University, and has master's degrees in taxation and accountancy. She changed her name from Susan to Sussan due to a belief in numerology.

When Ley was 19 she enrolled in flight school and gained her commercial pilot's licence when she was 20. She has been a waitress, cleaner, air traffic controller and commercial pilot, and later a farmer and shearer's cook. She met John Ley while aerial stock-mustering in south-west Queensland. They married in 1987, settled on her husband's family farm in north-east Victoria, and had three children before their 2004 divorce. Ley was Director of Technical Training at the Australian Taxation Office in Albury from 1995 to 2001 before entering politics.

Career

Ley was elected to parliament at the 2001 general election. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary (Children and Youth Affairs) in October 2004 and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in January 2006.

Following the 2007 election, Ley was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing and Shadow Minister for Status of Women by Opposition Leader, Dr Brendan Nelson, moving to Shadow Minister for Customs and Justice when Malcolm Turnbull became Opposition Leader in September 2008.

When Tony Abbott became Opposition Leader in December 2009 she was given the portfolio of Shadow Assistant Treasurer and was moved to Shadow Minister for Employment Participation and Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning after the 2010 election. On 16 September, Ley was appointed Assistant Minister for Education in the Abbott Government, with responsibility for childcare.

As part of a ministerial reshuffle, on 23 December 2014 Ley was promoted to cabinet, to become the Minister for Health. She also became Minister for Sport.

New prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull added the Aged Care portfolio to her responsibilities in September 2015.

In January 2017, an examination of Ley's expenditure claims and travel entitlements revealed she had purchased an apartment on the Gold Coast, close to the business premises of her partner, for $795,000 whilst on official business in Queensland. Ley defended the purchase, saying her work in the Gold Coast was legitimate, that all travel had been within the rules for entitlements, and that the purchase of the apartment "was not planned nor anticipated" (a claim which was widely derided). On 8 January, Ley released a statement acknowledging that the purchase had changed the context of her travel, and undertaking to repay the government for the cost of the trip in question as well as three others. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ley had made 27 taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast in recent years.

On 9 January 2017, Ley announced she that she would stand aside from her ministerial portfolios until an investigation into her travel expenses was completed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. She announced that she would not be making her diaries public. On 13 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Ley had resigned from the ministry. Greg Hunt was appointed as Ley's replacement as the Minister for Health and Sport, and Ken Wyatt was appointed Assistant Minister for Health and Minister for Indigenous Health and Aged Care, both with effect from 24 January 2017.