Federal Minister Sussan Ley's prior Gold Coast purchase offer

Federal Minister Sussan Ley's prior Gold Coast purchase offer
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

The Herald Sun has revealed the sidelined Federal health minister Sussan Ley used a taxpayer-funded trip to inspect a Gold Coast property nine months before her much reported 2015 purchase.

Ms Ley stood down on Monday from the ministry pending investigations of her taxpayer-funded Gold Coast trips, with the paper suggesting the latest revelations put her future in further doubt.

The Albury-based MP’s troubles worsen after retired couple Adrienne and Stewart McEachran came forward to claim that she and her partner, Graham Johnston, inspected their home in Advancetown (pictured above and below), in the Gold Coast hinterland, in late August and on September 8 in 2014.

Federal Minister Sussan Ley's prior Gold Coast purchase offer

Government documents reveal that Ms Ley billed taxpayers more than $2,000 in travel costs for a long weekend on the Gold Coast from September 5 to 8, 2014.

Ms Ley declined to answer queries on the latest claims, the paper said.

The selling couple said that in October, Ms Ley made an offer that was about $50,000 below the mid-$700,000 asking price, and they declined.

The Gold Coast hinterland property sold for $760,000 just a few months later.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked Ms Ley to stand aside without ministerial pay until her travel claims had been probed by the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. 

It was a defiant Ms Ley who belatedly faced the media after the Herald Sun revealed last Friday she purchased an oceanview apartment in the De Ville complex during a taxpayer-funded work trip which she said had been unplanned.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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