Bronwyn Bishop will be “defiantly contesting” the next election in her seat of Mackellar, according to her spokesman, as the Tony Abbott declared the speaker was “on probation” over her expense claims.
The fallout continued over the Speaker’s decision to charter a helicopter from Melbourne to Geelong and back last year at a cost of $5227.27. More details also emerged about other charter flights to the NSW regional towns of Young and Nowra.
The department of finance is investigating the flights, which the speaker revealed on the weekend. The cost of these flights are not listed in Bishop’s entitlements report for the period from July to December 2014.
Bishop’s trip to Young, two hours west of Canberra, occurred five days after the Geelong helicopter charter. She spoke at the invitation-only event at the Young Services Club on 10 November 2014, which was organised by Hume Liberal MP Angus Taylor. The cost was $50 a head, with cheques payable to the Young Branch, NSW Division, Liberal Party of Australia.
The Young Witness reported that the speaker received a “rockstar welcome” from close to 200 guests.
Bishop told the local paper she felt privileged to hold the Speaker’s role.
“Being impartial doesn’t mean you give in to the noisiest lot, being impartial means if you have a ruling you have to make, I’ll listen to both sides of the argument and then I’ll make the decision,” she told the Witness.
Labor’s manager of opposition business Tony Burke has written to the prime minister to ask about the details of the Speaker’s probation period, given there was no parliamentary precedent for probation.
“I ask that you provide further information to clarify how being on probation will impact on authority over Parliament House and the House of Representatives; role when Parliament resumes; entitlement reporting responsibilities; and additional salary apportioned to the Speaker’s role,” the letter said.
“I also ask that you provide information on the duration of the probation, the consequences of the Speaker breaching any conditions of the probation, how any breaches of the probation will be reported to the Australian public and how the status of the probation could be affected by any investigation conducted by the department of finance or the Australian federal police.”
Frontbenchers, including social services minister Scott Morrison and assistant infrastructure minister Jamie Briggs, as well as backbencher and marginal seat holder Craig Laundy, distanced themselves from the Speaker on Monday. They followed treasurer Joe Hockey and environment minister Greg Hunt’s criticism of Bishop over the weekend.
But Bishop was defiant in the face of veiled criticism from her colleagues. Bishop’s chief of staff and spokesman Damien Jones said: “I can confirm that the Speaker is defiantly contesting the next election in Mackellar.”
Earlier on Monday, Tony Abbott said he still had confidence in the speaker, though he was “very unhappy” about her behaviour.
“She has been a strong Speaker, she has been a good servant of our country, she has been a good servant of the Coalition and so she does have my confidence – but, like everyone who has done something like this, inevitably for a period of time, they are on probation,” Abbott said.
So far the prime minister is the only member of the government to publicly support Bishop, who has held seat of Mackellar on Sydney’s northern beaches since 1994. Abbott holds the neighbouring electorate of Warringah. He once described himself as the “ideological love child” of Bishop and former prime minister John Howard.
Scott Morrison suggested that while ministers were answerable to the prime minister, the Speaker, as one of the presiding officers, was independent.
“The Speaker and the President of the Senate sit outside the government,” said Morrison. “They are not members of the executive government and that is how the parliament works. They are intended to be you know have an independence in that role.”
“At the end of the day I can understand why people would feel very strongly about that and I can understand their anger.”
Ray Hadley asked who the speaker had to answer to, if not the prime minister. Morrison said Bishop was answerable to the parliament and “through the parliament to the Australian people”.
“[Presiding officers] face the same processes that any backbench member of parliament – what I am saying is as minister because we’re the government, we have accountability to the prime minister,” said Morrison.
Channel Seven reported that Bill Shorten spent $1282.04 on a return flight between Melbourne and Sydney for a Labor fundraising function during the leadership ballot for the Labor party.
Shorten’s spokesman said he attended the fundraiser after an address to the Maritime Union of Australia, as shadow industrial relations spokesman.
“On October 9, Mr Shorten travelled to Sydney to speak at the MUA National Council, which he was invited to address nearly a month earlier,” said the spokesman.
“After travelling to Sydney for this work commitment, he remained for a fundraiser with Anthony Albanese. This is a common occurrence amongst all politicians, including Mr Abbott. I can confirm no luxury helicopters were hired for this trip.”
Barnaby Joyce said he had used the events to look through his own records to “make sure he was doing the right thing”.
“I am pretty satisfied with where I am but I don’t like throwing stones in a glasshouse because you just don’t know,” he said.
“I don’t make any excuses for the helicopter issue, nobody is, not even Bronwyn. She is paying the money back with a penalty.”
Joyce said members were bound to attend functions to raise money for their respective parties, when they would rather go home.
“It doesn’t go into your pocket, it goes into the party’s pocket so it’s not something that you are doing it for your own personal benefit, you are asked of it by the party.
“You try to make sure you do not rip off the Australian taxpayer, that’s very important because it’s their money but I am not going to start hurling stones here, there and everywhere because I can tell you, you end up eating them.”
