Childcare operator Martin Corkery donated $50,000 to the Queensland Liberal National party’s in 2011 according to the Australian Electoral Commission. There is no suggestion his support had any influence on the sale of the apartment to Ley.

Childcare operator Martin Corkery, told Guardian Australia he knew Ley on a professional basis through his advocacy for the industry when the sector came under her portfolio in opposition, then as an assistant minister.

Corkery was in Europe when the apartment was auctioned and had no idea Ley was the buyer until after contract was signed.

UPDATE 1.30PM

Labor has called on Health Minister Sussan Ley to explain why she bought an investment property on the Gold Coast during a taxpayer-funded trip classified as official business.

The opposition's health spokeswoman Catherine King said Ms Ley must "front up today and explain" or resign.

Ms Ley said she had not planned to buy a Gold Coast ocean view apartment during a trip to Brisbane in May 2015 for a government announcement about an expansion of drugs included in the ​Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In a statement, Ms Ley's office said the minister travelled to the Gold Coast for meetings with health stakeholders after the announcement, but her purchase of the $795,000 Main Beach property had been unexpected.

Ms Ley's husband accompanied her on the trip. She claimed the standard $370 politicians' travel allowance, while her husband travelled under family travel expense rules, bringing the cost to more than $3900.

"The property purchase was not planned nor anticipated," a spokeswoman for the minister said. 

"The Entitlements Management Branch was consulted at the time to confirm Ms Ley's partner's travel was within the rules.

"All travel undertaken was in accordance with the rules." 

On Friday, Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher avoided answering questions about Ms Ley's travel expenses five times, each time referring journalists to Ms Ley's statement. 

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said his colleague was in Queensland on legitimate government business. 

"We don't concoct a $1.3 billion medical announcement. She was there for work and she had other reasons to," he said. 

"The fact that this happened concurrently was not the reason she was there. She went there for a $1.3 billion announcement, and that's part of your job, that's what you do."

Asked if the public would accept Ms Ley's explanation or if she should detail which stakeholders she met on the trip, Mr Joyce said those questions were for the minister. 

Ms King called on Ms Ley to "front up today and explain" or resign.

"If she cannot do this, she has no choice but to resign, or [Prime Minister] Malcolm Turnbull must move her off his front bench," the Labor frontbencher said. 

"Sussan Ley's explanation that the purchase 'was not planned nor anticipated' is woefully inadequate and an insult to Australians." 

Labor called on Ms Ley to explain which stakeholders she met while on the Gold Coast, if an official Comcar was used at any point during the purchase of the property and how the spontaneous purchase of the property came about.

"Malcolm Turnbull has an appalling track record of doing the right thing when it comes to his ministers doing the wrong thing," Ms King said.  

"This cannot be another name added to his list of inaction and denial while taxpayers pay the price." 

Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who resigned over revelations she charged taxpayers more than $5000 to take a helicopter to a Liberal fundraiser, defended Ms Ley.

"When you're a minister or a parliamentary office holder, as I was, your staff arranges your travel arrangements," Mrs Bishop told Sky News. 

"You're a busy person, you can't check on that, that's what they're employed to do."

This article by Tom McIlroy originally appeared in The Age.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley has admitted buying a Gold Coast investment property during a taxpayer-funded trip

Farrer MP Sussan Ley has admitted buying a Gold Coast investment property during a taxpayer-funded trip to Queensland, but says the purchase wasn't planned.

The Health Minister's office has confirmed she bought the property after travelling to Brisbane in May 2015 for an announcement about subsidised drugs.

She then went to the Gold Coast for meetings with health stakeholders, and that's when the real estate deal was done.

"The property purchase was not planned nor anticipated," a spokeswoman for the minister said in a statement on Friday.

The Herald Sun says Ms Ley was travelling with her partner on the taxpayer-funded trip when she bought a $795,000 unit, complete with ocean views, at Main Beach.

The minister's spokeswoman said there was nothing untoward about Ms Ley's partner being present on the trip.

He'd been invited to accompany Ms Ley to a function in Sydney the previous evening, and he had travelled on to Queensland with her "under family travel arrangements".

"The Entitlements Management Branch was consulted at the time to confirm Ms Ley's partner's travel was within the rules. All travel undertaken was in accordance with the rules," the spokeswoman said.

Liberal frontbencher Greg Hunt defended his colleague.

"I do know that Sussan is generally one of the most extraordinarily scrupulous ministers with her personal behaviour," he told 2GB Radio.