Shalailah Medhora Wednesday 29 July 2015
Speaker defiant despite facing growing pressure for her resignation over travel claims and looming no-confidence motion when parliament resumes
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, will face a no-confidence motion when parliament resumes in August. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Bronwyn Bishop is resisting growing pressure for her resignation over travel claims despite deep concern within the government at the escalating political damage from the expenses scandal.
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Christopher Pyne, leader of the government in the House of Representatives, warned his worried colleagues to fall in line and support the embattled Speaker.
Despite a looming no-confidence motion when parliament resumes and criticism from Labor that her position as Speaker of the House of Representatives is no longer tenable following question marks over the use of travel entitlements, Bishop is not budging.
“The Speaker is not resigning,” a spokesman said.
On Wednesday it emerged that Bishop had claimed $288 of taxpayer dollars to stay in Brisbane the night of Liberal backbencher Teresa Gambaro’s wedding in April 2007.
The Speaker’s office said Bishop met an unnamed source the morning after the wedding in relation to her role as chair of the house standing committee on families and human services.
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In June 2006, Bishop claimed back $600 for flights and transport to attend the wedding of then Liberal shadow minister Sophie Mirabella, also justified with an unspecified meeting with an unnamed person.
Pyne defended the Speaker in the face of the allegations. “She retains my full support,” Pyne told Sky News on Wednesday afternoon.
He told parliamentary colleagues not to “jump on the bandwagon” against Bishop, who he said was doing a “superb” job.
“I’m standing strongly behind Bronwyn Bishop as the Speaker and I would call on all my colleagues whether they’re in the cabinet or on the backbench to stand firm against the demands by the Labor party to remove the Speaker,” Pyne said.
“Let’s not repeat the mistakes of our opponents, that we’ll jump at the first whiff of grapeshot,” he said, referring to Labor’s decision to axe Harry Jenkins to install Peter Slipper.
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One colleague distanced himself from the Speaker. “Bronwyn is accountable for her own actions; it is really up to her to explain them in a way that satisfies the public,” Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos told Sky News on Wednesday night.
“I think it is worth us asking more questions about how entitlements are administered because there are grey areas which puts parliamentarians in a difficult position where they have to [decide] about how those grey areas are administered.”
He said if Bishop was considering her future, he was confident she would do what was best for the Liberal party.
“I think it would be true to say this has been a distraction now for a couple weeks,” Sinodinos said. “The sooner it is either resolved or blows over the better, so we can get back to sending out our messages on economic security and national security.”
Bishop will face a no-confidence motion when parliament resumes in August, brought forward by crossbenchers Clive Palmer and Andrew Wilkie.
“My hope is that Mrs Bishop will do the honourable thing and resign,’’ Palmer said.
“Bronwyn Bishop is not a fit person to occupy the highest position in the House of Representatives,’’ Wilkie said. “The member for Mackellar has abused parliamentary entitlements and treats public expectations with contempt. No wonder many members of the community question her integrity.”
The Speaker can only be removed by a no-confidence motion, and cannot be sacked by the prime minister.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has not ruled out a similar motion, and said he expects that the “soap opera” would be over before parliament starts again.
Bill Shorten says Bronwyn Bishop ‘has to go’ and Tony Abbott should make it happen. Link to video
Committee member Kate Ellis, who is shadow education minister, expressed surprise at the justification.
“It seems that none of our committee members were aware of just how busy our chair Bronwyn Bishop was on our behalf with a variety of secret, confidential and anonymous meetings,” Ellis said. “At the end of the day, it’s up to Bronwyn Bishop to demonstrate to Australians that she was on committee business.”
Senior frontbenchers offered muted support for the Speaker early on Wednesday.
The public has “justifiable angst” on the issue of parliamentary expenses, social services minister Scott Morrison admitted, adding that “the Speaker is consulting with her colleagues and I think that’s the appropriate place for those discussions to take place”.
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, also implied that the Speaker was contemplating her future.
“I understand that the Labor party will seek to use this to destabilise question time, for example, and I’m sure Speaker Bishop will take that into account as she considers her position,” Julie Bishop told Channel Nine on Wednesday morning.
“But I believe it’s important that the Department of Finance be able to carry out an investigation. That’s what has happened in the past and that should happen in this case.”
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, put Bishop on “probation” after she was forced to pay back more than $5,000 of taxpayer money for taking a helicopter to travel between Melbourne and Geelong for a Liberal party fundraiser.
