Out, but not dismissed.
More:
Health Minister Sussan Ley has stood down from the frontbench following controversy over her taxpayer-funded travel but says she is confident she will return to the ministry when investigations are complete.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Monday that the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, will conduct an investigation into Ms Ley’s use of taxpayer funded entitlements.
Mr Turnbull said Ms Ley would stand aside without ministerial pay while the investigation is conducted.Ms Ley has come under fire for purchasing an $800,000 apartment on a taxpayer-funded trip to the Gold Coast in May 2015. It has also been revealed that she has taken 27 flights in and out of the Gold Coast over recent years including two trips over the New Year’s Eve period.
In her first public appearance since her entitlements attracted controversy, a defiant Ms Ley told described the affair as a “distraction” and said she expected to quickly resume her ministerial duties.
“I have nothing to hide,” Ms Ley said of the investigation. “I have not broken any of the rules.”
Of course its a distraction, because let’s be real.
Almost all members of parliament engage in property speculation (ok, “investment” for those who are offended by reality). As I mentioned last week when this first came to light, as shown by Lindsay David , Paul Egan & Philip Soos a few years ago there’s ca. $300-350 million of property owned by our collective overlords in Canberra.
And you wonder why not a skerrick of actual housing reform gets passed by these chambers? Not even by the independents, e.g Nick Xenophon who owns eight and has been involved in property scandals in the past, or by alt-right members like the failed senator Bob Day.
Why reform negative gearing when for most politicians – who haven’t risen to ministerial rank and can therefore get a plum job in the private sector they oversaw while minister – need it to reduce the tax payable on their salaries. The average backbencher is on $200,000 per annum, plus 15% superannuation, plus some pretty juicy travel allowances.
Why try to enact greater supply response reform when your top donors are the banks, big 4 accountancy firms and property groups?
Why bother trying to make it more affordable for first home buyers by reducing house prices when such a fall would eliminate the slim equity in the huge mortgages the politicians have in their expansive portfolios?
This is not a new trend as we’ve become accustomed to learning how our “representatives” are really just there to game the system for their own personal wealth.
Choppergate, HSU, Eddie Obeid, Christopher Pyne’s submarine scam…it just keep going and going.
And you thought a swamp in Washington DC needed draining? How about one in the ACT?