Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to investigate undeclared trip expenses funded by Palestinian Authority
Sharri Markson
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley has launched an internal investigation into why she failed to declare accommodation, meals and transport funded by the Palestinian Authority.
The expenses were from her trip to the West Bank in 2011.
Ms Ley was a strong critic of Israel at the time and was given a tour by the Palestinian officials.
Other MPs who went with her on that trip, like Labor’s Maria Vamvakinou and Jill Hall and Liberal MP Melissa Parke made declarations in their pecuniary interest register about gifted meals, transport and accommodation from the Palestinian Authority.
Ms Ley was travelling on the same trip but made no declarations in her pecuniary interest register.
Her office on Thursday night told me they were examining her declarations.
“Our office will look into the question you have raised regarding a matter of declaration 14 years ago,” the statement said.
“If correct, this would have been an administrative oversight. Sussan has never hid from the fact that she was on the trip, indeed she has spoken about it publicly on a number of occasions.”
This failure to declare gifts like accommodation and meals and transport from the Palestinian Authority is embarrassing for Ms Ley.
The revelation comes as concerns emerge about her ability to lead the policy argument on Israel if she were to take on the foreign affairs portfolio.
Peter Dutton has a big decision to make about who will be his shadow foreign affairs minister.
The top contenders for the job are Dan Tehan, James Paterson, Julian Leeser, Dave Sharma and Ms Ley.
The only reason Ms Ley is even being considered for this role is because she is the Deputy Liberal Leader and the Liberal constitution states that the deputy can choose her own portfolio.
And the main reason Ms Ley is deputy is that after the last election – when Scott Morrison was wrongly hounded over the Brittany Higgins affair – there was the perception that the Coalition had a women problem.
So, Mr Dutton appointed a woman as his deputy.
The deputy leader needs to come from the lower house and there were limited options – either new or lower profile MPs.
So Ms Ley was appointed deputy and now, in the wake of Simon Birmingham’s resignation, she has her sights on the foreign affairs job.
But the biggest issue in foreign affairs right now is the Middle East – and Israel’s fight against terror on behalf of all western civilisation.
It’s a fight Trump supports unequivocally.
And here’s the thing. Ms Ley was a pro-Palestinian advocate for some 15 years, at least, before she visited Israel for less than a week in late 2022 and changed her perspective.
That visit was after she became deputy liberal leader in the May 2022 election.
Ms Ley told me on Thursday: “As Deputy Leader, I have consistently held the government to account for their comprehensive and categorical failure to support Israel — and our wonderful Jewish diaspora community — on an almost daily basis since October 7.
“I always strive to be a voice of moral clarity and I never shy away from standing up for Australia. Unlike this Labor Government, it will always be Australia’s national interest that dictates the Coalition’s foreign policy thinking, not electoral arithmetic.”
Now I have to say right up – I applaud Ms Ley for being open to visiting Israel and changing her views. If only more people had this attitude.
And she has been incredibly strong in her commentary since October 7 – and I’ve broadcast on my show her many questions to Albanese in Question Time about his hostility towards Israel.
But the inescapable reality is, Ms Ley’s commentary over at least 15 years was hostile towards Israel.
It’s as bad as anything Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said.
In 2017 Ms Ley spoke about her long-standing affinity with the Palestinians and made shocking accusations against Israel.
“I rise today to remind the parliament that in June it was 50 years since the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. The conflict that empowered the state of Israel but began 50 years of occupation of Palestinian land is seen from very different points of view,” Ms Ley said during a speech to the House of Representatives.
“As someone with a longstanding affinity for the Palestinians, including co-chairing this parliament’s friendship group over many years, I wish to highlight the Palestinian perspective.
“Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea half the residents or more live as either second-class citizens or noncitizens because they are Palestinian. In the West Bank a third of the Palestinian population is under 14. Less than five per cent would remember a time without Israeli occupation.”
As you just heard there, Ms Ley accused Israel of occupation – she has also described the highly necessary security fence as a separation wall and criticised Israel for refusing to allow the return of expelled refugees.
Ms Ley in parliamentary speeches also accused Israel of confiscating Palestinian land has said that Gaza is on the brink of starvation.
In 2011, she expressed support for Palestinian statehood – this was to the left of the Labor Party at the time.
“I support the Palestinian bid for statehood in part because it will give heart to the ordinary people of the West Bank and Gaza,” she said during a speech to the House of Representatives.
Ms Ley also claimed Israel had airbrushed Palestinians out of existence.
“The Jewish residents travel on Israeli-only roads straight to Tel Aviv and cannot even see the second road network or the villages hidden in the valley below. It is as if the Palestinians have been airbrushed out of existence,” she said.
In a 2008 speech, Ms Ley said: “Israel has many friends in this country and in this parliament; the Palestinians, by comparison, have few. Theirs is not a popular cause. But it is one I support, in part out of knowledge that the victors in World War II, including Australia, wrote a ‘homeland’ cheque to cover the sins of the holocaust and centuries of anti-Semitism in Europe, but it was the Palestinians who had to cash it.”
This feeds into the narrative that the Jews don’t belong in Israel – when in fact Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and lived there for thousands of years before Islam.
In just 2018, Ms Ley met with the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network – a controversial organisation whose current leader, Nasser Mashni, has described Jews as filth.
So – again – Ms Ley saw firsthand the situation in Israel and has been extremely sympathetic to Israelis since then, and she has taken the fight up to Ms Wong.
But the other contenders for the foreign affairs portfolio, especially Mr Leeser, Mr Paterson and Mr Sharma, all have an in-depth and highly intellectual understanding of the complexities and history of the Middle East.
They didn’t change long-held views to support Israel a year or so before October 7.
They have always been aligned with Australia’s official foreign policy stance and national interests.
It’s obvious any one of them would be a more natural and qualified choice for the foreign affairs portfolio.
If Ms Ley forces the issue, there would be accusations that the Liberals had succumbed to DEI, that her appointment was owing to her gender rather than merit.
Merit should win out on all occasions. Particularly with such an important role as foreign affairs, that’s so crucial to Australia’s future and national security.
