Australia Speaker Bronwyn Bishop quits over expenses

“I have not taken this decision lightly, however it is because of my love and respect for the institution of Parliament and the Australian people that I have resigned as Speaker”, Mrs Bishop said in a statement.

Mrs. Bishop was a key figure behind Mr. Abbott’s political ascendancy, and her influence among other conservatives helped save the Prime Minister during a challenge to his leadership in February.

Abbott told a news conference in Sydney that after a number of conversations with Bishop over the last few weeks, she had called him on Sunday to tell him that she would be resigning.

There was no immediate indication of who will replace Mrs Bishop when Parliament resumes next week.

After first being elected to the Senate in 1987, Bishop has been a member of the lower house since 1994 and served as a minister in former Prime Minister John Howard’s government.

Mr Smith, from Victoria, and South Australia’s Dr Southcott are considered frontrunners. “In the end this is a matter for the Liberal partyroom to choose a nominee for the speakership”, Mr Abbott said. He said if you started throwing rocks, there wouldn’t be a person left in the parliament because everybody would have an issue somewhere in the past.

Bishop, whose expense claims over the past 10 years are already the subject of a Department of Finance inquiry, will retain her parliamentary seat.

One line in particular in the “Terms of Reference” for the PM’s An Independent Parliamentary Entitlements System stood out like a German Shepherd’s crab apples. “So it’s very important that we have a system which is independent, which is accountable, which is transparent, and which is workable”.

The committee also recommended a way of simplifying a complicated collection of laws and practices.

“If it’s the system and not Mrs Bishop, why did she resign?”

“Today I announce that there will be a fundamental review of members of parliament’s entitlement”.

“The system at the moment nearly automatically generates mini scandals and problems and embarrassment and it needs to be cleaned up”.

These salaries and the accompanying lifestyle only underline the social chasm between the majority of working people and the parliamentarians and the corporate elites whose interests they represent.

In response political commentators said Mr Abbott has mishandled the scandal and failed to take swift action against the Speaker’s profligacy, especially as he called for cuts to public spending.