Bronwyn Bishop has always suggested she would paint the speaker’s chair blue
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Version 0 of 1. When the Liberal party’s grande dame Bronwyn Bishop was elected speaker, she described it as the capping of her career and promised to act impartially. Something of an institution in the Coalition – and with the complete confidence of Tony Abbott – Bishop was always expected to be forceful in her leadership of the chamber. "I can think of no one more likely to deal with all of the other formidable characters in this place without fear or favour," Abbott said at her appointment. In her 27-year political career, she has gained a reputation for being forthright – an antipodean Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, like the Iron Lady herself, Bishop once enjoyed pretty good polling numbers as a future prime minister. Now at the stage when she has nothing to lose, the 44th parliament could have been an opportunity for her to kick arse, in the most dignified, speakerly kind of way. As parliamentary umpire, Bishop could have used her imperious manner to have all members shaking in their boots. She could have cracked her whip to set new heights for parliamentary standards. Alas, Bishop looks to be failing her own brief. "There will be times when there will be turbulence,” Bishop said at her opening address, “when we can feel the heat and anger of the place rises, but it will be my job to try and keep that order while remaining a place of robust discussion of ideas and competing ideas." Competition? Not so much. From the get-go, Bishop suggested she would be painting the speaker’s chair blue. On her first day in the chair in November 2013, she made it clear she would attend Coalition party room meetings. In December, in the party room she spoke in support of her colleague Cory Bernardi who described the ABC as a “taxpayer-funded behemoth”. To the most untrained eye, Bishop is clearly batting for the government, often refusing to hear Labor’s points of order, joining in on government jokes at Labor’s expense and taking the mickey out of the opposition herself. Labor, without the numbers, can do nothing but sit on its hands. The manager of opposition of business, Tony Burke, and to a lesser extent the shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus are making their frustration known. Burke has regularly made reference to the “umpire” Bishop being involved in “sledging”. Tuesday was a pretty standard question time. Dreyfus rose to make a point of order to which the speaker said she did not need to listen. “You do need to listen. It’s your job,” said Dreyfus with a slightly pathetic tone. He was thrown out. Fellow Labor MPs Kate Ellis, Terri Butler and Matt Thistlethwaite were also ejected. That afternoon, Labor tabled a notice of motion endorsing the principle of the independence of the speaker, urging Bishop to stop attending party room meetings and noting previous statements by Abbott supporting an independent speaker. It is bound to fail on numbers. The leader of the house, Christopher Pyne, has suggested Labor members are just rude and attempting to bully the speaker. “I have never seen such an ill-mannered, rude group of people to the person who is in the chair and I have to say that when I was the manager of opposition business for five years I never spoke to Anna Burke or Harry Jenkins or Peter Slipper in the way that Bill Shorten, Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese and Mark Dreyfus speak to Bronwyn Bishop. It is verging on bullying,” said Pyne. Anyone who has watched her career could hardly imagine Bishop bullied. Well-known monarchist David Flint has defended Bishop and alluded to her approach. “Like dogs & children, MPs need order & discipline. At last we have a Law & Order Speaker” he tweeted. If only Bishop would use that take-no-prisoners approach to set the example to which she aspired. |