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| Bronwyn Bishop under scrutiny over expenses for flight to another wedding | Bronwyn Bishop under scrutiny over expenses for flight to another wedding |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Embattled Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop is consulting with colleagues and considering her next step after yet another expenses row erupted, government frontbenchers have said. | |
| News Corp on Wednesday reported that the Speaker claimed a travel allowance of $288 to stay in Brisbane in April 2007 when she attended backbencher Teresa Gambaro’s wedding. | |
| A spokesman for Bishop told News Corp the Speaker had met an unnamed academic as part of an parliamentary inquiry into illicit drugs that was held the Monday after the wedding. | A spokesman for Bishop told News Corp the Speaker had met an unnamed academic as part of an parliamentary inquiry into illicit drugs that was held the Monday after the wedding. |
| The website of the standing committee shows that there were no public hearings listed for mid to late April, after Gambaro’s wedding on 15 April. Public hearings resumed in Canberra from 9 May, and the only public hearing in Queensland through the course of the illicit drugs inquiry had already taken place in March. | The website of the standing committee shows that there were no public hearings listed for mid to late April, after Gambaro’s wedding on 15 April. Public hearings resumed in Canberra from 9 May, and the only public hearing in Queensland through the course of the illicit drugs inquiry had already taken place in March. |
| The Australian newspaper reports that a spokesman for Bishop said the Speaker had engaged in a meeting on 16 April with a confidential source in connection to the illicit drugs inquiry. | The Australian newspaper reports that a spokesman for Bishop said the Speaker had engaged in a meeting on 16 April with a confidential source in connection to the illicit drugs inquiry. |
| Related: Bronwyn Bishop has never welcomed the kind of scrutiny she applies to others | David Leser | Related: Bronwyn Bishop has never welcomed the kind of scrutiny she applies to others | David Leser |
| Calls to the Speaker’s office to verify the claims have gone unanswered. | |
| The public has “justifiable angst” on the issue of parliamentary expenses, social services minister Scott Morrison has admitted. | |
| “I’m not one to offer public lectures to my colleagues on these things. If I have anything to pass on to the Speaker I will do it privately,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “The Speaker is consulting with her colleagues and think that’s the appropriate place for those discussions to take place.” | |
| The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, was similarly equivocal on supporting the Speaker. | |
| “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 opposition leader, Bill Shorten, is not ruling out moving a motion of no confidence in the Speaker. | |
| “I’ll be amazed if this saga is still carrying on when Parliament resumes, and of course, if that is the case and it’s still carrying on when Parliament resumes then Labor will have plenty to say,” he told reporters on Wednesday. | |
| Bishop has come under fire for claiming $600 for flights to Albury in 2006 when she attended the wedding of the former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella. | Bishop has come under fire for claiming $600 for flights to Albury in 2006 when she attended the wedding of the former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella. |
| The Speaker has insisted she flew to the Victorian town for a secret meeting in her capacity as chair of the standing committee of family and human services, to meet people who did not wish to appear before a public hearing of an inquiry into work-life balance. | The Speaker has insisted she flew to the Victorian town for a secret meeting in her capacity as chair of the standing committee of family and human services, to meet people who did not wish to appear before a public hearing of an inquiry into work-life balance. |
| A spokesman for Bishop was unable to provide Guardian Australia with the details of how many people she met at the weekend in question when contacted on Tuesday. | A spokesman for Bishop was unable to provide Guardian Australia with the details of how many people she met at the weekend in question when contacted on Tuesday. |
| Other committee members do not remember authorising committee business for the Albury trip. | Other committee members do not remember authorising committee business for the Albury trip. |
| “I can’t recall any reason Bronwyn Bishop would need to be in Albury that weekend but I do absolutely say if there was a reason, if she did go through the proper processes, then there would be documentation and we wouldn’t need to be here speculating about it,” Labor’s education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, said on Tuesday. | “I can’t recall any reason Bronwyn Bishop would need to be in Albury that weekend but I do absolutely say if there was a reason, if she did go through the proper processes, then there would be documentation and we wouldn’t need to be here speculating about it,” Labor’s education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, said on Tuesday. |
| “This is up to Tony Abbott and Bronwyn Bishop to put this matter to rest and they should be able to do that very easily by just producing the documents.” | “This is up to Tony Abbott and Bronwyn Bishop to put this matter to rest and they should be able to do that very easily by just producing the documents.” |
| The prime minister, Tony Abbott, put Bishop on “probation” after she claimed $5,277 to take a helicopter trip between Melbourne and Geelong for a Liberal party fundraiser. She was forced to pay back the money, plus a 25% loading for lodging the incorrect claim. | |
| Some of Bishop’s colleagues are standing by her. | |
| “I do think that Bronwyn Bishop is doing a good job as Speaker of the House,” parliamentary secretary Kelly O’Dwyer told ABC TV on Tuesday night. | |
| But she added that the use of taxpayer money has “to be within the rules”. | |
| “The public is rightly very, very upset if they feel that a member of parliament has acted outside of their entitlement,” O’Dwyer said. |