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'Sorry' Health Minister Struggles To Defend Position Over Entitlements

Sussan Ley is scrambling to keep her job.

CANBERRA – A day after admitting she made an "error of judgment" by charging taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast in which she bought a $795,000 apartment, Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley still has some explaining to do.

So much so, she is due to hold a press conference later on Monday morning and is expected to have a sit down with the Finance Department over her use, and possible misuse, of entitlements.

Yes, she will repay the cost of four taxpayer-funded trips, but there are question marks over other trips and did she breach ministerial standards or the basic "pub test"?

Even the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, according to Ley herself, has said she had not met the standards he expects of ministers. This while apologising for her "lack of judgement."

Labor's Catherine King insists Ley must resign, citing the earlier resignation of former Veterans Affairs Minister Stuart Robert over connections to a property developer, but her ministerial colleague Simon Birmingham has told the ABC's RN Breakfast program that Ley has not breached ministerial standards.

Asked directly by host Hamish Macdonald on Monday whether she has breached the standards, the education minister responded, "I don't believe that is the case."

The Minister is due to hold a press conference at her regional electorate office in Albury in southern New South Wales at 10.00 am Monday.

More to come..

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'Sorry' Health Minister Struggles To Defend Position Over Entitlements

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