Daniel Hurst Political correspondent Sunday 19 July 2015
Bill Shorten demands Tony Abbott ask the Speaker to stand down as both sides of politics spar over federal police role in investigating expenses claims
Bronwyn Bishop at a news conference in Sydney on Saturday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Bill Shorten has called on Tony Abbott to intervene in the expenses scandal surrounding the Speaker, Bronwyn Bishop, saying it was time for her to stand aside from the key role of presiding over parliament.
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The Labor leader said on Sunday the prime minister should display “the strength of character” to act on the matter.
“This arrogant misuse of taxpayers’ funds, without so much as an apology, every day it goes on is simply making Bronwyn Bishop’s position untenable. It has now become a test of Tony Abbott’s leadership,” Shorten said.
“Everyone knows that Bronwyn Bishop was Mr Abbott’s captain’s pick to be the Speaker ... Does Tony Abbott have the strength of character to do what everyone thinks should happen and ask Mrs Bishop to stand aside?”
Bishop admitted on Saturday that it was an “error of judgment” to claim more than $5,000 on expenses for a chartered helicopter flight from Melbourne to a Liberal fundraiser at a Geelong golf club, but insisted she would not stand down as Speaker over what she called a “political beat-up”.
Abbott said on Saturday that he would not ask Bishop to stand aside because “she has repaid the money and she does a good job”. On Sunday, the prime minister’s spokesman said that “yesterday’s answer stands” when asked about Shorten’s fresh call.
Government ministers backed Bishop’s decision to repay the money, but the treasurer, Joe Hockey, declined to disavow the practice of MPs billing taxpayers to attend party fundraisers. “Well, we all raise money for our political parties,” Hockey said.
Andrew Bolt asks Joe Hockey if he charges taxpayers for fundraiser expenses – link to video
The environment minister, Greg Hunt, called on the Labor party to respect the “sanctity” of the Australian federal police after the opposition questioned why the force was treating expenses misuse claims against Bishop differently from those against the former Speaker Peter Slipper.
The Labor party wrote to the Australian federal police asking them to investigate the matter, but the AFP pointed to the Department of Finance-led process under the Minchin protocol “to handle complaints regarding the use of entitlements by federal parliamentarians”.
The Labor MP Pat Conroy wrote to the AFP a second time, arguing a refusal to investigate the allegations against Bishop “would be inconsistent with the approach taken in the Slipper case”.
Bishop spoke to the reporters in Sydney on Sunday and rejected the comparison. When asked to explain the difference between her case and that of Slipper, Bishop said: “Totally a different matter altogether and you know it.”
Bishop said it was “for others to judge” whether the issue had damaged her reputation but she reaffirmed her belief that “the best form of apology is to repay the money”.
Shorten backed Conroy’s letters to the AFP and said he recognised the agency was independent and would make its own decisions. But Hunt said Shorten should counsel his MPs against “directing or in any way trying to influence the conduct of an AFP investigation”.
The AFP insisted on Sunday that it had not closed the door on a potential investigation, but had “sent these complaints to the Department of Finance for assessment”.
“The AFP has not refused to investigate allegations from the complaints,” a spokeswoman said on Sunday.
“The AFP awaits advice from the Department of Finance in accordance with the protocol as to whether any breaches of parliamentary entitlements have occurred before taking any further action.”
During a robust interview on Ten’s Bolt Report on Sunday, Hockey said Bishop had recognised that the expenses claim was an error of judgment and had agreed to repay the money along with a 25% fine.
The interviewer, Andrew Bolt, criticised Bishop’s “stupid insistence” that she had been entitled to claim the trip to go to a Liberal fundraiser, and asked whether that was false or not.
Hockey did not answer directly. “Well, my understanding is that you need to be doing your duties as a member of parliament,” he replied. “Now, the Speaker has a privileged position. As Speaker of the parliament, the entitlements that she has need to comply with all the rules and guidelines. The Department of Finance is investigating it.”
When asked whether he would charge taxpayers for expenses to go to a Liberal fundraiser, Hockey said: “Well, Andrew, members of parliament have a job to do and they should do their job. That’s the bottom line.”
Pressed again on whether he charged to go to party fundraisers, Hockey said: “Well, we all raise money for our political parties. We all have a duty to raise money as a member for parliament.”
Bolt persisted by asking: “I want to know. Is her behaviour of charging to go on Liberal party business, charging that to the taxpayers, common among her colleagues? Do you do it?”
Hockey answered by focusing on the use of a helicopter as the mode of transport, rather than the broader practice.
“Well, no, I haven’t heard of anyone who has taken a helicopter to a fundraising event,” the treasurer said. “I am saying, Andrew, to you this. There are rules that have been laid down, bipartisan rules, and there’s a fine in place. There’s a fine in place and Bronwyn Bishop has paid the fine. Quite frankly, what you said earlier is absolutely right. This has sucked up too much oxygen for the nation over the last few days.”
Joe Hockey fails to support Bronwyn Bishop in an interview with 2UE on Friday. Link to audio
Bishop said in a media conference on Saturday that the repayment of the money was “the biggest apology one can make” and she would not resign.
Asked to justify how attending a party fundraiser constituted official business, she said: “The fact of the matter is I’m the guest speaker and I’m speaking about the parliament and how it works and that’s what I did.”
Labor has pointed to a standard government form for charter certification for parliament’s presiding officers that says “office holders may use charter transport (including aircraft, helicopters and other vehicles) for their personal transport in connection with their office holder duties”.
According to that form, the office holder must certify that “knowingly giving false or misleading information is a serious offence under the Criminal Code Act 1995” and that they “travelled on the charter and it was provided for official purposes”.
Hunt, the environment minister, sought to throw the focus on to Labor for questioning the AFP’s deferral to the finance department under the Minchin protocol. Hunt told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday: “I do make a comment on the fact, and I say this to Mr Shorten, you might want to counsel your members and to reaffirm your complete and utter support in the sanctity of the AFP, its independence and the fact that no member of parliament should try to influence the conduct or course of any inquiry.”
The AFP pursued Slipper over his use of taxi vouchers to visit wineries outside Canberra in 2010. In 2014 a magistrate convicted Slipper of dishonestly causing a risk of loss to the commonwealth and ordered him to repay the $954.
But Slipper won a legal battle to overturn the conviction in February 2015. In doing so the Australian Capital Territory supreme court highlighted considerable uncertainty over the definition of parliamentary business.
Slipper repeatedly argued he was a victim of double standards given other MPs had been allowed to repay expenses under the Minchin protocol.
Conroy referenced the Slipper case in his second letter to the AFP and said a police investigation into Bishop’s conduct should “proceed without any further delay”.
Conroy said the Minchin protocol was “merely an administrative policy adopted by the Department of Finance” which was “no impediment to a police investigation into Ms Bishop’s conduct”.
Bronwyn Bishop admits 'error of judgment' but refuses to stand down
The Speaker insists she did nothing wrong in claiming expenses for $5,000-plus helicopter charter to Liberal fundraiser and says the allegations are a ‘political beat up’
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He pointed to comments attributed to a Department of Finance spokesman in 2013 that the Minchin protocol did not apply where an allegation was referred directly to the AFP.
An AFP spokeswoman said on Sunday: “The AFP can confirm it received a referral, along with associated information, to investigate allegations of fraud made against Mr Peter Slipper MP on 21 April 2012. Additional material relating to this matter was sought from the Department of Finance, which was provided to the AFP.”
The Greens senator Lee Rhiannon called on the AFP to investigate the Bishop matter, pointing to the Slipper precedent. “If the AFP fails to investigate they are effectively politicising their own actions because of their inconsistency,” she said in a statement.
