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Sussan Penelope Ley (pron. , "Susan Lee"; ; born 14 December 1961) is an Australian politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2025, being the first woman to hold either role. Prior to assuming the party leadership, she was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and deputy leader of the Liberal Party. Ley served as a cabinet minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments. She also served as a parliamentary secretary in the final term of the Howard government.
Ley was born in Nigeria to English parents and grew up in the United Arab Emirates and England before moving to Australia as a teenager. Prior to entering politics, she worked as a commercial pilot, farmer and public servant based in Albury, New South Wales. She was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2001 federal election representing the regional New South Wales division of Farrer.
In the Abbott and Turnbull governments, Ley held various ministerial portfolios including Health, Sport, and Aged Care. She 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. She 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. Following the 2025 federal election, Ley became the acting leader of the Liberal Party and won the subsequent Liberal leadership election to become leader of the Liberal Party and therefore Leader of the Opposition.
Ley initially said she changed her name from Susan to Sussan after reading about numerology, although in a 2025 interview she said that, as a rebellious teenager, she added the extra "s" to annoy her family.
When Ley was aged 19 she enrolled in flight school and gained her commercial pilot's licence when she was 20. She has worked as a waitress and department store cleaner, and trained as an air traffic controller, but did not pass the entrance exam. She became a commercial pilot, and was later a farmer and shearers' cook. Ley was Director of Technical Training at the Australian Taxation Office in Albury from 1995 to 2001 before entering politics.
When Tony Abbott became Opposition Leader in December 2009 she was given the portfolio of Shadow Assistant Treasurer and was moved to Shadow Minister for Employment Participation and Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning after the 2010 election.
In January 2017, an examination of Ley's expenditure claims and travel entitlements revealed she had purchased an apartment on the Gold Coast, close to the business premises of her partner, for $795,000 while on official business in Queensland. 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" (a claim which was widely derided). On 8 January, Ley released a statement acknowledging that the purchase had changed the context of her travel, and undertaking to repay the government for the cost of the trip in question as well as three others. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ley had made 27 taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast in recent years.
On 9 January 2017, 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. She announced that she would not be making her diaries public. On 13 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Ley had resigned from the ministry. Greg Hunt was appointed as Ley's replacement as the Minister for Health and Sport, and Ken Wyatt was appointed Assistant Minister for Health and Minister for Indigenous Health and Aged Care, both with effect from 24 January 2017.
On 26 August 2018, Ley was appointed Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories in the Morrison government. In May 2019, following the party's victory at the 2019 election, she replaced Melissa Price as Minister for the Environment.
In March 2022, 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".
Also in March 2022, 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. This was despite a government call for feedback, which received 6701 responses, all disagreeing with the proposed removal of the recovery plans.
In July 2022, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek accused Ley, the former Environment Minister, of hiding a document that was handed to the coalition government in December 2021, ahead of the 2022 Australian federal election. The document outlined the poor and declining health of the Australian ecosystem. "It tells a story of crisis and decline in Australia's environment and of a decade of government inaction and wilful ignorance," Ms Plibersek said.
In August 2022, ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit of Australia, Ley falsely stated that no one in the world is making an electric ute. "We know we're not going to have electric vehicles tomorrow," Ms Ley said. "And no one in the world is making an electric ute, by the way, and even if they were it would be unaffordable." . After commentators pointed out that electric utes were already in production, a spokesperson for Ms Ley said that Ms Ley meant that, "EV utes are not yet commercially available in Australia and even if EV utes arrived here overnight, cost-effective models β which invariably have lower distance ranges β are not yet suitable for practical use in rural and regional Australia."
In October 2022, Ley travelled to Israel, leading a delegation on a trip organised by AIJAC, to reaffirm the Coalitionβs commitment to West Jerusalem as the nationβs capital and observe the impact of the Abraham Accords. Ley said the accords and her visit had changed her view.
In March 2023, Ley dressed up as Tina Turner in Parliament to raise money for cancer.
In February 2024, on the eve of the 2024 Dunkley by-election, Ley posted a tweet linking a crime incident in Frankston to "foreign criminals". Victoria Police had charged an immigration detainee but later dropped the charges after a case of mistaken identity. Speaking after the police bungle was revealed, a spokesperson for Ms Ley told the ABC the deputy leader stood by her comments completely, suggesting it spoke to the broader issue of how the government had handled the release of the detainees into the community. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was "extraordinary" that Ley had refused to delete her tweet.
Ley is the first woman elected to lead the Liberals, the Coalition, or serve as the Leader of the Opposition at the federal level in Australia. At 63, Ley is also the oldest first-time Leader of the Opposition since Arthur Calwell in 1960.
On 20 May 2025, the federal Coalition was temporarily dissolved due to policy disagreements between the Liberal and National parties. Eight days later, on 28 May, the Liberal and National parties reached an agreement to re-form the coalition. Ley appointed her shadow cabinet that day which is made up of 16 Liberal and 5 Nationals members with Ted O'Brien as the Deputy Leader and Shadow Treasurer.
Ley identifies as a feminist and is a republican. In a 2022 interview, she stated "the times change, and no matter how relevant the monarchy might have been, no matter how elegant, it's definitely neither relevant or elegant to my children ... and that view is widespread". Ley voted for legalizing same-sex marriage in 2017.
In 2011, 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. In June 2024, Ley criticised Labor's decision not to expel Fatima Payman after Payman crossed the floor to express support for Palestine, at which time Payman accused Israel of committing genocide during Gaza war and using phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".
In May 2018, Ley introduced a private member's bill to ban the live export of sheep. In 2023, Ley changed her position and stated her support for the sheep live export industry.
In 2023, Ley supported the No vote in the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.
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. In 2024, Ley said she was βdisappointedβ in Musk and backed the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, βIβm for X obeying the law, and Iβm not for the actions and the statements of our eSafety commissioner being ignored."
Ley is vegetarian. She is a supporter of the Sydney Swans Australian rules football club.
Ley's mother Angela Braybrooks died on 17 May 2025, four days after Ley's election as opposition leader. She had been living in an aged care home in Albury, New South Wales.
Opposition (2022β2025)
Following the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 election, it was reported that Ley would be a candidate to replace Josh Frydenberg as deputy leader of the party, following his electoral defeat. Ley was elected unopposed on 30 May 2022.
Leader of the Opposition (2025βpresent)
Incumbent party leader Peter Dutton lost re-election for his seat of Dickson at the 2025 federal election, making Ley the acting leader of the Liberal Party. Ley won the subsequent party leadership election by 29 votes to 25, defeating conservative opponent Angus Taylor.
Political positions
Ley is a member of the moderate faction of the Liberal Party, with ABC News stating that she had also been backed by the moderate faction in the leadership election where she was elected as a leader.
Personal life
Ley met John Ley while aerial stock-mustering in south-west Queensland. They married in 1987, settled on her husband's family farm in north-east Victoria, and had three children before their 2004 divorce. Ley has multiple grandchildren, residing on the NSW Central Coast. Ley lives in Albury, and owns an investment property in Albury and one on the Gold Coast.
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External links
Categories: Sussanley.com Official Website, 1961 Births, Living People, Members Of The Australian House Of Representatives, Members Of The Australian House Of Representatives For Farrer, University Of New South Wales Alumni, Women Members Of The Australian House Of Representatives, La Trobe University Alumni, Charles Sturt University Alumni, English Emigrants To Australia, Naturalised Citizens Of Australia, Politicians From Kano, People From Dubai, Abbott Government, Turnbull Government, 21st-century Australian Women Politicians, Women Government Ministers Of Australia, People Educated At Dickson College, Morrison Government, Australian Women Commercial Aviators, Australian Commercial Aviators, Ministers For Health Of Australia, Australian Feminists, Australian Mps 2001β2004, Australian Mps 2004β2007, Australian Mps 2007β2010, Australian Mps 2010β2013, Australian Mps 2013β2016, Australian Mps 2016β2019, Australian Mps 2019β2022, Australian Mps 2022β2025, Australian Republicans, Australian Mps 2025β2028
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