2017 turned out to be an exemplar in the bigwigs resigning over travel expenses (and assorted unexplained circumstances) stakes and the first one was the biggest. It all kicked off early in January when Sussan Ley stood aside – and the following week stood down – as Australia's health minister. We couldn't find any record of a particular health crisis on the Gold Coast that would necessitate her travelling there 20 times in three years but she kept popping in for some reason and it seems she liked it so much she decided to invest in a nice little $795,000 beach shack.

Ms Ley had been busy shepherding the federal government through the difficult terrain of health policy reform after the Coalition's near-miss at the 2016 election but it eventually fell to Greg Hunt to pretty much reverse many of the government's unpopular and to be honest ill-judged ideas, such as the plan to outsource the Medicare payments system. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to guarantee that this would be kept in public hands after the issue almost cost him government, with the Department of Health holding market briefings in early January and going to tender in March.