Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, has resigned her post, effective immediately. The Speaker has been under fire for the last 18 days, following revelations about her extravagant travel expense claims, a number of which came under scrutiny for not being justifiably chargeable taxpayers.
Having finally apologised on Thursday of last week, the Speaker’s position had become untenable and the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott announced yesterday that she would stand aside. She does however have the continued support of the PM, with Mr Abbott announcing that it was the travel expenses system to blame rather than Mrs Bishop herself.
Former secretary of the Department of Finance, David Tune and Chair of the Remuneration Tribunal, John Conde, will co-chair a committee to redesign parliamentary entitlements.
The position of Speaker will be filled in the interim by Deputy Speaker, Bruce Scott, with Veteran MP Philip Ruddock seen by many Coalition MPs to be frontrunner to permanently fill the role.
What do you think? Should Bronwyn Bishop have resigned sooner? Should the PM be more critical of Mrs Bishop’s actions?
