1. Sussan Ley has been member of parliament for the New South Wales seat of Farrer since 2001 and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.
38 Facts About Sussan Ley
1. 2.
Sussan Ley grew up in the UAE and England before moving to Australia as a teenager.
3.
Sussan Ley was a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government and became a senior opposition frontbencher following the government's defeat in 2007.
4.
Sussan Ley resigned from the ministry in January 2017 following a controversy over her travel expense claims, but returned in August 2018 when Scott Morrison succeeded Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.
5.
Sussan Ley subsequently served as Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories and Minister for the Environment prior to the government's defeat at the 2022 federal election.
6.
Sussan Ley was born on 14 December 1961 in Kano, Kano State, Federation of Nigeria.
7.
Sussan Ley attended boarding school in England until she was 13, when her family migrated to Australia.
8.
Sussan Ley's parents bought a hobby farm in Toowoomba, but quickly sold it due to a crash in beef prices.
9.
Sussan Ley was educated at Campbell High School, Dickson College, La Trobe University, the University of New South Wales and Charles Sturt University, and has master's degrees in taxation and accountancy.
10.
Sussan Ley changed her name from Susan to Sussan after reading about numerology.
11.
When Sussan Ley was 19 she enrolled in flight school and gained her commercial pilot's licence when she was 20.
12.
Sussan Ley has worked as a waitress and cleaner, and trained as an air traffic controller, but did not complete the course.
13.
Sussan Ley did become a commercial pilot, and was later a farmer and shearers' cook.
14.
Sussan Ley was Director of Technical Training at the Australian Taxation Office in Albury from 1995 to 2001 before entering politics.
15.
Sussan Ley was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2001 election, winning the New South Wales seat of Farrer for the Liberal Party following the retirement of former National Party leader and deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.
16.
Sussan Ley campaigned in "a large caravan, brightly painted in Liberal blue", ultimately winning a narrow victory on preferences.
17.
In September 2013, following the Coalition's victory at the 2013 federal election, Sussan Ley was appointed Assistant Minister for Education in the Abbott government, with responsibility for childcare.
18.
Sussan Ley was made Minister for Aged Care in September 2015 following the replacement of Tony Abbott with Malcolm Turnbull.
19.
Sussan Ley defended the purchase, saying her work in the Gold Coast was legitimate, that all travel had been within the rules for entitlements, and that the purchase of the apartment "was not planned nor anticipated".
20.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Sussan Ley had made 27 taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast in recent years.
21.
On 9 January 2017, Sussan Ley announced that she would stand aside from her ministerial portfolios until an investigation into her travel expenses was completed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
22.
Sussan Ley announced that she would not be making her diaries public.
23.
On 13 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Sussan Ley had resigned from the ministry.
24.
Sussan Ley subsequently signed the petition requesting to hold a further party meeting to determine the leadership of the Liberal party, and again voted for Dutton against Scott Morrison in the second spill days later, which saw Morrison replace Turnbull as prime minister.
25.
On 26 August 2018, Sussan Ley was appointed Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories in the Morrison government.
26.
Since 2020, Sussan Ley has been a member of the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, co-chaired by Sheikh Hasina and Mia Mottley.
27.
In March 2022, Sussan Ley successfully appealed a Federal Court ruling that she had a "duty of care to children to consider climate change harm when approving coal mines".
28.
Also in March 2022, Sussan Ley approved a Coalition decision to scrap 176 out of 185 recovery plans designed to prevent the extinction of threatened species and habitats, including the Tasmanian devil.
29.
In July 2022, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek accused former Environment Minister Sussan Ley of hiding a document that was handed to the coalition government in December 2021, ahead of the 2022 Australian federal election.
30.
In March 2023, Sussan Ley dressed up as Tina Turner in Parliament to raise money for cancer.
31.
In March 2021, The Sydney Morning Herald stated that Sussan Ley was a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberal Party.
32.
In 2011, Sussan Ley publicly supported the admission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations and was reported to be a member of the cross-party Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group.
33.
In May 2018, Sussan Ley introduced a private member's bill to ban the live export of sheep.
34.
In 2023 Sussan Ley supported the No vote in the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.
35.
In June 2024, Sussan Ley criticised Labor's decision not to expel Fatima Payman after Payman's crossing the floor to express support for Palestine, and accusing Israel of committing genocide during Gaza war and using phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".
36.
Sussan Ley has voiced support for Elon Musk and, during Australia Day celebrations in 2025, was quoted as comparing the British colonisation of Australia to Musk's intended colonisation of Mars.
37.
Sussan Ley met John Sussan Ley while aerial stock-mustering in south-west Queensland.
38.
Sussan Ley has multiple grandchildren, residing on the NSW Central Coast.