Age, Biography, and Wiki
Sussan Penelope Ley, born on December 14, 1961, is an Australian politician currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Liberal Party. She was born in Nigeria to English parents and spent her early life in the UAE and England before moving to Australia as a teenager. Ley has had a diverse career, working as a commercial pilot, farmer, and public servant in Albury, New South Wales, before entering politics.
| Occupation | Politician |
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| Date of Birth | 14 December 1961 |
| Age | 63 Years |
| Birth Place | Kano, Northern Region, Nigeria |
| Horoscope | Sagittarius |
| Country | Nigeria |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is no publicly available information regarding Sussan Ley's height, weight, or specific body measurements.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Sussan Ley's personal life details, including her relationship status, are not widely covered in the available public sources.
Her family moved to the Trucial States (United Arab Emirates) when she was one year old, where her father worked as a British intelligence officer. Ley attended boarding school in England until she was 13 years old, when her family migrated to Australia. Her parents bought a hobby farm in Toowoomba, Queensland, but quickly sold it due to a crash in beef prices. They then moved to Canberra, where her father worked for the Australian Federal Police (AFP). She 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. Her grandfather was a Church of England minister in England and she attended an Anglican church in Albury.
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'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.
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| Husband | John Ley (m. 1987-2004) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Information about Sussan Ley's net worth and salary is not detailed in the available sources. However, her political career and leadership roles likely contribute to her income. As a politician, her salary would be consistent with those of other Australian federal parliamentarians.
Career, Business, and Investments
Sussan Ley has a distinguished career in Australian politics:
- Early Career: Before entering politics, Ley worked as a commercial pilot, farmer, and public servant.
- Political Career: Elected to the Australian House of Representatives in 2001, she has held various ministerial positions, including Minister for Health, Sport, and Aged Care under the Abbott and Turnbull governments. She also served as Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories and Minister for the Environment.
- Investments: Ley has been reported to own assets such as a Cessna 182 aircraft. Her financial disclosures show savings accounts with institutions like Hume Bank and ANZ, but no significant investments in bonds or debentures have been reported.
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.
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 — which invariably have lower distance ranges — 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 Coalition’s commitment to West Jerusalem as the nation’s capital and observe the impact of the Abraham Accords. Ley said the accords and her visit had changed her view.
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.
Social Network
Sussan Ley is active in the political sphere and may maintain a presence on official platforms typical for Australian politicians, such as Twitter or Parliament's official websites. However, specific social media handles are not emphasized in the available sources.
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.
Education
The available sources do not provide detailed information about Sussan Ley's educational background. Her diverse career path suggests a strong foundation in multiple fields, but specific educational institutions or degrees are not mentioned.
In the Abbott and Turnbull governments, Ley held the ministerial portfolios of Assistant Minister for Education (2013–2014), Minister for Health (2014–2016), Sport (2014–2017), Aged Care (2015–2016), and Health and Aged Care (2016–2017). 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 (2018–2019) 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.
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.
In September 2013, following the Coalition's victory at the 2013 federal election, Ley was appointed Assistant Minister for Education in the Abbott government, with responsibility for childcare. Following a ministerial reshuffle, she was promoted to cabinet in December 2014 as Minister for Health and Minister for Sport. She was also made Minister for Aged Care in September 2015 following the replacement of Tony Abbott with Malcolm Turnbull.
