The public may never know if Sussan Ley broke any ministerial travel rules, because the federal government has chosen to keep results of an inquiry hidden.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Prime Minister Department’s Secretary Martin Parkinson was tasked with conducting an inquiry into Ms Ley’s travel expenses, which led to her resignation as Health Minister last week.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week said he would not be releasing Mr Parkinson’s report on the findings.
“The advice the Prime Minister received from the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet was prepared for the consideration of the Governance Committee of Cabinet,” a spokesman from his office told The Border Mail.
“It is standard practice not to release advice of that kind.”
Despite that “standard practice”, Ms Ley welcomed the release of the inquiry report last week when she resigned as Health Minister, maintaining her innocence until the end.
“I and my office are complying with the Department of Finance’s review into the travel rules,” she said.
“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.”
Ms Ley, who has not appeared in public since her resignation, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday because of “pre-arranged leave”.
“There are a few matters remaining from her portfolio which Sussan has had to attend to,” a spokesman said.
“She then has a few days left in annual leave before a run of electorate meetings and events already in the planning before Parliament resumes in February.”
But Ms Ley’s Facebook account put out a post at 4.20pm Wednesday calling for submissions to the Building Better Regions Fund.
Greg Hunt has been announced as Ms Ley’s replacement as Health and Sports Minister.
“Ministers are all doing their jobs very well, regrettably we had a resignation that’s given me an opportunity to make changes,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We have to spend each dollar of taxpayers’ money even more carefully than we spend our own.”
Meanwhile Indi MP Cathy McGowan chose the day of the federal reshuffle to call on Mr Turnbull to include “regional impact statements” in future federal budgets.
- New Health Minister: P9