EMBATTLED Health Minister Sussan Ley’s woes have deepened after revelations she inspected a Gold Coast property on a previous taxpayer-funded jaunt.

On Monday, Ms Ley stood aside from her health portfolio, without ministerial pay, pending two reviews into her expenses.

Ms Ley was already in hot water for claiming travel entitlements for a May 2015 trip to the resort city where she impulse purchased a $795,000 apartment from a Liberal Party donor.

Then, on Monday it emerged the member for Farrer, in southern NSW, had also billed the taxpayer for two trips to the Gold Coast where she attended New Year’s Eve celebrations.

On Tuesday, the pressure kept on building on the Minister — now nicknamed “Ley-buy” — with new allegations she had spent part of her time on other Gold Coast trips looking for properties.

The Daily Telegraph revealed that on two occasions in 2014, she swung by to look at a property owned by Adrienne and Stewart McEachran in the Gold Coast hinterland.

The second inspection, in September 2014, coincided with a long weekend in the Gold Coast, for which Ms Ley billed the taxpayer $2000 in travel costs.

Ms Ley did not answer questions on the new allegations.

However, she said had agreed to pay back some of the costs related to trips to the Gold Coast but has said that was “not an admission that I’ve broken the rules”.

Ms Ley said on Monday she was “confident” she would be cleared of any wrongdoing, and her “diary is available to be inspected” but only by public servants and certainly not by the media.

However, Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said Ms Ley should have been sacked following revelations taxpayers funded two trips to the Gold Coast where she celebrated New Year and it was a “weak response from a weak Prime Minister”.

In a statement on Monday morning, Mr Turnbull said Ms Ley had agreed to “stand aside without ministerial pay” while an investigation into her expenses was conducted by the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Senator Arthur Sinodinos will take on the health portfolio while the probe takes place.

Mr Turnbull said Ms Ley needed to stand down.

“Australians expect the government to deal with these serious matters very thoroughly.

“I expect the highest standards from my Ministers in all aspects of their conduct, and especially in the expenditure of public money,” he said in a statement.

Ms Ley has said the decision was “agreed in a mutual conversation” with the Prime Minister.

“I apologise for the distraction that this issue has caused,” she said.

“I have nothing to hide. I have not broken any of the rules. But I also recognise that I need to subject those travel records to scrutiny.”

On Sunday, Ms Ley apologised for slugging the taxpayer with her travel expenses for the trip where she purchased an apartment calling the move an “error of judgment”. She also agreed to pay back the costs.

“[Repaying the expenses] is not an admission that I’ve broken the rules and I’m very confident that the investigations will demonstrate that no rules were broken whatsoever. But I also recognise the pub test and that for people who live in my electorate, who work hard, this has a look that I don’t understand those issues and in fact the opposite is the case,” she said on Monday.

“In hindsight, the character of my visit to the Gold Coast changed the moment I unexpectedly was the successful bidder at that auction,” she added.

Weak response from a weak Prime Minister. Didn't realise his ministerial standards were negotiable. Taxpayers deserve better #auspol #leybuy — Catherine King MP (@CatherineKingMP) January 8, 2017

It emerged on Monday, that between 2013 and 2016, the minister travelled to the Gold Coast on 17 occasions costing the taxpayer more than $40,000.

The Daily Telegraph cross referenced those trips against publicly available information regarding her ministerial duties — such as appearances, media releases and speeches — but could not find any evidence of “official business” on nine occasions. These unaccounted for trips cost taxpayers some $20,000. Ms Ley denies the trips were purely personal in nature.

The minister visited the Gold Coast on New Year’s Eve in both 2013 and 2014.

On the first trip to ring in the New Year, she billed the taxpayer $575 in airfares from her electorate in Albury to the Gold Coast and $335 in taxi fares.

A year later, $269 worth of air tickets from Sydney to the tourist mecca also came from the public purse.

The minister did not charge any accommodation costs to the taxpayer.

Following the announcement Ms Ley was stepping aside Labor’s Ms King tweeted it was a “weak response from a weak Prime Minister. Didn't realise his ministerial standards were negotiable. Taxpayers deserve better,” she wrote.

Speaking on ABC radio on Monday morning, Ms King said it was time for Ms Ley to depart her portfolio.

“Frankly, I don’t think she’s got any choice in that circumstance but to resign,” Ms King said on RN Breakfast.

“If she’s not willing to resign then I don’t think Malcolm Turnbull has any choice but to step her down from the front bench.”

Ms Ley said that both New Year jaunts were due to invitations from a “a recognised Queensland businesswoman and discussed the government’s agenda”.

Commenting on the lack of any media releases or speeches. Ms Ley said, “People imagine that we travel the country and we just go to official openings, cut ribbons and make media announcements. In fact, for a Health Minister, the opposite is the case. I do spend a lot of time talking to patients, with people who are involved in the manufacture, the access and the supply of medicines and how we get patients to access those medicines is vital.

“My diary is available to be inspected by the Department of Finance and the Prime Minister’s secretary. Will I allow the media access to go on a fishing expedition? Perhaps at the cost of confidentiality of some of the both confidential and commercial in-confidence meetings I have — no, I won’t.”

In a statement on Sunday, Ms Ley said she had decided to stay on in the Gold Coast on the night of May 9 “rather than incur considerable extra expense” by flying back to Albury, and then to Canberra the following day.

She said the travel was within the rules and while attending an auction wasn’t the reason for her Queensland visit, she understood it changed the context of the travel.

“I have spoken to the Prime Minister and he agrees that this claim does not meet the high standards he expects of ministers,” Ms Ley said, “I apologise for the error of judgment.”

Ms Ley promised to ask the Finance Department on Monday to invoice her for the costs of a car and travel allowance claimed on May 9, and the penalty for wrongly claiming.

She said she would also seek invoices to pay two other taxpayer-funded Gold Coast stays, in 2014 and 2015, “where I should have stayed and claimed in Brisbane”, as well as a June 2015 flight from Coolangatta to Canberra.

“In the interests of total transparency, I will ask the department to review all my ministerial travel to the Gold Coast,” Ms Ley said.

— with AAP