@Foxy, Monday, 20 July 2015 7:22:06 PM, "I would like to add one final website for people to read. It presents quite a few facts
that I did not know"

From that article you recommended,

<Labor will only get so far complaining about Bishop's partisan behaviour. Before Jenkins and Burke, Labor speakers were similarly tribal. Even the most impartial speakers we've had - Jenkins, Burke and Slipper - between them threw out non-government MPs 89.5 per cent of the time.

And considering it was a personal decision by Jenkins and Burke to place themselves at arms length from Labor, there's no guarantee the next Labor speaker will be any less partisan than Bishop.

The Opposition is also treading on thin ice if it pursues the notion that being a guest speaker at a party fundraising event is not "official business" for a speaker. Inconveniently for Labor, there is no legal definition of the term. The criticism does raise the question, however, of whether it is official business when a minister or shadow minister attends a similar event as guest speaker, and travels to the event in a taxpayer-funded car. This is a fairly common practice.>

Short Memories
BTW, wasn't it Julia Gillard who in a very cynical move to further her personal ambitions, retired Harry Jenkins and put Slipper in his place?

Labor under the first womyn PM, Julia Gillard, plummeted to new depths, rock bottom, as far as the Speaker is concerned. Willie Shorten and many of his senior Labor (wo)men were part of that shabby crew and figured strongly in the game playing.

Emperor Julian,

"JF Aus writes, and Poirot endorses, the folloing astounding comment:"

I endorsed it?

I quoted it - where did I endorse it?

I quoted it to highlight the ridiculous premise that Bishop is a person of integrity. By my calculations, she is a person who is very light on actual substance, very big on entitlement and spending taxpayer's money to feather her particular political nest - that doesn't add up to integrity.

The other reason I quoted it was again to highlight Jf Aus's premise that because she "uses her own name" that somehow makes some sort of difference to her plight....and then signing his real name as if that somehow puts him a cut above the rest of us who use pseudonyms online for perfectly sensible reasons.

SM,

As I mentioned, it's pointless for you to try and score points flinging about examples like that...the Coalition are rorters extraordinaire.

As for Bronnie...

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/21/bronwyn-bishop-has-never-welcomed-the-kind-of-scrutiny-she-applies-to-others?CMP=share_btn_tw

"The other damning assessment of her – and this from many of her own colleagues – was that she possessed a genius for getting people offside, for being alarmingly short on policy substance while being driven by personal ambition.

After being dumped from John Hewson’s shadow ministry in 1990 she poured her considerable energy into becoming – as Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey said at the time – “the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the estimates committee system”."

"One senior Liberal party staffer told me that “it was one of the most obscene displays [they had] ever seen”.

That same week Bishop was forced to release details of her own travel costs, which – for a backbencher – were simply staggering: $93,456 spent on airfares and car hire from July 1992 to June 1993.

And that was before allegations from ex-staffer Ellis Glover were made to this writer that shortly after entering the Senate in 1987 she had hired a helicopter – at tax payer’s expense – to get from a fete to a dog show, so as not to be late for the opening."

Oh golly gosh, Emperor Julian... I now see why you thought I endorsed it - I said "Couldn't agree more."

You see, that was sarcasm....I was being sarcastic, which is why I signed off as Hercule Poirot.

(One day they'll invent a sarc font - and then these niggling misunderstandings will cease to occur:)

Here's a good one...from 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-visit-to-cancer-hospital-used-to-justify-fundraising-visit-20140826-108nxo.html

"Prime Minister Tony Abbott told government MPs he had to schedule an early morning visit to a cancer research centre in Melbourne on Tuesday so that he could justify billing taxpayers to be in the city for a "private function" the night before.

Mr Abbott made the admission at the regular meeting of Liberal and Nationals MPs after being taken to task by one his own senators for turning up an hour late.

Several MPs told Fairfax Media that the Prime Minister described the private function as a "fund-raiser" to the party room.

The issue came to a head when LNP senator Ian Macdonald, who has been a frequent critic of his own side since he was demoted from the frontbench after the election, told Mr Abbott his priority should have been the regular party room meeting, which is held every Tuesday morning when Parliament is sitting.

But Senator Macdonald was swiftly rebuked by colleagues including backbencher Ewen Jones, who said Senator Macdonald's constant criticism of his own team had "overstepped the mark"."

"Several government sources told Fairfax Media they were stunned to hear the Prime Minister respond to Senator Macdonald's complaint by saying he had to schedule an official function on Tuesday morning so he could justify being in Melbourne for a fund-raiser the night before under entitlements."

Charming....
(that's sarcasm:)

otb,

You seem to have missed the main point that the author
was making of the article I cited earlier.

Nobody is denying the fact as the author states that
the privileged culture that mostly turns a blind eye to
the misuse of entitlements - by politicians on all sides
of the political spectrum must be exposed and changed so
that the entitlements system can be made more transparent and
MPs more accountable for how they spend public money.

However the main point that the author is making is that
Bronwyn Bishop is unfit for the office of Speaker.
She is no longer competent.
Not only has she lost her judgement, as her helicopter flight
clearly indicates. She did not do anything about it until
the news hit the tabloids. But she regularly struggles to
call MPs by their correct titles, as even a casual observer
of Question Time would notice.

The author tells us that the Manager of Opposition Business, Tony
Burke, is often called the Member for Burke, and some MPs
have been called by the names of electorates they'd held in
previous parliaments.

We've told that even ministers assist the Speaker with their
correct titles when she calls them to the dispatch box.

Tony Burke has begun to exploit Mrs Bishop's failing acuity and
has at times managed to fluster the Speaker who once had an
encyclopaedic recall of "the practice" on parliamentary
procedural matters.

The author says that in response Mrs Bishop has taken to
lashing out at the Opposition - ejecting one Labor MP for laughing
another for saying "Madam Speaker."

We are reminded what Mr Abbott said in 2012 when referring for
Peter Slipper to stand aside:

"It is important that the Prime Minister act to ensure the
integrity of Parliament."

Indeed, and on that basis, the author states that Prime Minister
Abbott knows exactly what he needs to do.

Fox,

I quoted the author you pushed, but as usual, you only want to take the bits that suit you.

Just think though, if only your over-ambitious Julia Galah'd (Obama got that right) had not leaned on Harry Jenkins and initiated all of those other unprincipled manipulations she became infamous for, the political scene could have been very different indeed.