Bronwyn Bishop, Australia’s Parliamentary Speaker, Quits Over Travel Expenses

On Sunday, Bronwyn Bishop resigned as the Speaker of the House of Representatives after being pressured for the same for misusing her travel entitlement claims.

On July 15th the opposition Labor party revealed Ms Bishop had used $5,227.27 (€3,500) of taxpayers’ money to charter a helicopter to fly from Melbourne to Geelong last November – a distance of 75km that takes an hour by road – to attend a Liberal party fundraiser.

His desire to placate voter disgust at Ms Bishops’ vice-regal travel arrangement notwithstanding, Mr Abbott’s proposal is conspicuously belated.

“I look forward to continuing to serve the people of Mackellar as their local member”, she said.

Mr Abbott said the public deserved to be absolutely confident taxpayers’ money was not being abused.

DEPUTY Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce believes Bronwyn Bishop should continue as Speaker and be allowed to fix up her “mistakes”.

Mr Abbott said he and the Government had paid a price for the furore but Mrs Bishop had paid the highest price.

It has now gone down as another one of his notoriously unpopular “captain’s picks”. Well, you, prime minister.

Well… umm… ok, we can see where this is going, Mr Abbott.

BRONWYN Bishop is no longer Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Abbott stated that the laws relating to parliamentary entitlements mandatory reshape as there was in fact “a major cut off between what exactly is inside the principles and what’s in the neighborhood expectation”.

Now that his Liberal Party is in power and facing its own challenges, Abbott has a different outlook, blaming Bishop’s fall from grace on a confusing entitlement system and pledging reform.

Mrs Bishop apologised to the nation and admitted to an “error of judgement” on radio station 2GB on Thursday morning.

“One was that every member of parliament should have on their website a link to their claims made of the finance department”, he told the ABC’s AM program.

TONY Abbott hopes that when history is written he will be remembered as a wise man.

“We did get some changes [through] but it’s also true that parliament, both governments, are pretty slow to act on the key recommendations”.

Bishop said in a statement that “because of my love and respect for the institution of parliament and the Australian people that I have resigned as speaker”. “Abbott has blamed the system, but it was Bishop’s addiction to privilege that was the real culprit”.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who was to move a no-confidence motion in Mrs Bishop when Parliament resumed next week, also rubbished Mr Abbott clearing Mrs Bishop of any wrongdoing.