Health Minister Sussan Ley travelled to the Gold Coast twice at taxpayer expense for lavish New Year celebrations hosted by a multimillionaire political donor whose company has won major contracts from the Coalition government.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Monday that Ms Ley would be stood aside while her use of entitlements is probed by the head of his department, Martin Parkinson. A defiant Ms Ley insisted she had not broken any rules and would soon return to her ministerial duties when the investigation was complete.
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Minister steps down
Sussan Ley explains herself after she flew to the Gold Coast on official business but bought an apartment while she was there. She has stood aside as Health Minister. Courtesy ABC News 24.
"I have nothing to hide," Ms Ley said of the investigation. "I have not broken any of the rules."
SBS News reported on Monday evening that four ministers - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, Attorney-General George Brandis, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Education Minister Simon Birmingham - charged taxpayers almost $7000 to attend Mr Turnbull's exclusive harbourside New Year's Eve reception in 2015. And News Corp reported that Ms Ley had used a taxpayer-funded trip to look at a property on the Gold Coast months before she bought a luxury apartment on impulse.
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Government records show Ms Ley, who is based in Albury, has been a frequent visitor to the Gold Coast over recent years and has taken a dozen taxpayer-funded trips over weekends and public holidays to the tourist hot-spot where her partner owns a bin-cleaning business.
As well as the May 2015 trip in which she made an impulse purchase of an $795,000 apartment, Dr Parkinson will examine Ms Ley's taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast for New Year's Eve in 2013 and 2014.
At a press conference on Monday, Ms Ley said she had attended a New Year's Eve party and a business lunch at the invitation of a "prominent Queensland businesswoman". Her office later confirmed that the businesswoman was recruitment and training tycoon Sarina Russo, who ranked 13th on the BRW Rich Women list in 2015.
The party was held at the five-star Palazzo Versace hotel, which boasts on its website of having "an ambience of pure glamour" and "an exclusive waterfront setting".
Ms Ley said she and Ms Russo discussed "the incoming government's agenda around particular education and training issues and reflected on what the government could do to make sure that we recognised the needs of everyone in these important areas".
"So what I'm saying is they were business conversations and they were important conversations to the future of our government's agenda," she said.
Sarina Russo Job Access donated $20,000 to the federal Liberal Party in 2010 following a $24,000 donation to the party in 2004. The company also made several separate donations of $10,000 to $15,000 to the Queensland Labor Party.
Sarina Russo Job Access was awarded two tenders - worth $41 million and $4 million - in 2015 by the federal Department of Education and Training.
In a statement, Ms Russo said she was happy to assist the investigation and that she believed Ms Ley had "worked diligently" in all her portfolios.
"Every time I met with her it related to her portfolio or the government at hand," she said.
Ms Ley took a taxpayer-funded flight from Albury to Coolangatta via Sydney on December 30, 2013. She used a Cabcharge voucher that day before taking two taxpayer-funded cabs on New Year's Eve.
The following year, Ms Ley charged taxpayers for a flight from Coolangatta to Sydney on New Year's Day as well as a flight for a family member.
The intense focus on Ms Ley's trips has also sparked revelations concerning the New Year's Eve travel of her cabinet colleagues.
SBS News reported on Monday evening that the four ministers - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, Attorney-General George Brandis, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Education Minister Simon Birmingham - charged taxpayers almost $7000 to attend Mr Turnbull's exclusive harbourside New Year's Eve reception in 2015.
Guests were served "Chermoula spiced quail breasts with pomegranate molasses and Sydney rock oysters with chardonnay vinegar dressing".
Ms Ley has agreed to repay her travel claims from the controversial May 2015 trip in which she bought the apartment as well as several other trips to the Gold Coast.
Ms Ley repeated her original statement that the purchase was "neither planned nor anticipated".
Following a pre-budget health announcement in Brisbane on Friday May 8, Ms Ley said she decided to travel to the Gold Coast to meet a health patient the next day to speak about access to cancer medications.
After this decision, Ms Ley said her partner, Graham Johnston, noticed an online listing for an apartment auction on Saturday.
Ms Ley inspected the apartment for the first time 10 minutes before the auction began, she said.
Other trips to the Gold Coast included a trip in September 2013 for "official business" in which Ms Ley claimed three nights' accommodation for her and a family member. The total cost of the trip - including flights, travel allowance, hire cars and taxis - was $4674.
In April 2014, Ms Ley claimed five nights' travel allowance for a trip to the Gold Coast, which cost taxpayers $5127.
Mr Turnbull said in a statement: "Australians expect the government to deal with these serious matters very thoroughly and in accordance with the Statement of Ministerial Standards.
"I expect the highest standards from my ministers in all aspects of their conduct, and especially the expenditure of public money."
Acting Opposition Leader Penny Wong said the decision for Ms Ley to stand aside - rather than Mr Turnbull sack her - was "another weak response from a weak Prime Minister".
Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos will be the acting minister for health, aged care and sport while the investigation takes place.