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Holy shit. Really?Fuck you. Tell me.
Sorry. Okay. Short answer is that the Speaker is an elected MP who is then selected to keep order between the parties in the House of Representatives. In theory, they are impartial and keep both sides disciplined in equal measure. In practice… well, we'll get to that. Bronwyn Bishop became Speaker when the Abbott Government was elected in 2013, and has been fairly regularly criticised for her performance in the job. But that's not why she was booted out.No? What did she do?
She claimed a whole ton of travel expenses, which basically means that the taxpayer foots the bill when she wants to go somewhere. The trip that kicked all of this off was a helicopter ride she took from Melbourne to Geelong.Ahhh, that's why everyone's going on about helicopters. Haha, I get it now. Hey, maybe I could make a meme about it! Has anyone photoshopped her with—
Yes.But what about—
Yes. Just don't. It's been done.
Fine. But politicians fly everywhere on our dime. Why is this different?RELATED: A Blow-by-Blow Account of the Wong vs Bernardi Gay Marriage Debate
Sure, politicians have to fly places when it's part of their job, and nobody expects them to pay for it themselves. Actually, when Tony Abbott took office, he cracked down on pollies spending more than they needed to on flights so they wouldn't be such a burden on the taxpayer.
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Well, technically he didn't fire her: Bishop resigned. And this difference is important for the exact same reason he was dragging his feet.
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She eventually paid back at least some of the money she claimed, with a 25 percent "fraud fee" which isn't called that but really should be, so there's that. But now that she's no longer Speaker, she's going to be bumped down a pay grade from $341,000 to $195,000. That's a difference of $146,000, or roughly 29.2 helicopter rides to Geelong. Hopefully we'll be getting the details of her GoFundMe account so we can all chip in and help ease the transition.
This one scandal aside, how was Bishop as an actual Speaker?
Almost undoubtedly the most partisan in the Parliament's history. Theoretically, her job was to be the impartial adjudicator in the Parliament, but it was nigh impossible to see any evidence of impartiality in her actual performance.
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Yes. Yes it would.Wow.
Right?You couldn't make that up.
No. But you could try to pretend it didn't happen.Who's going to be the next Speaker?
At time of writing, a number of names have been bandied about, but the current favourite is Philip Ruddock, the so-called "father of the house" which is a title that denotes the fact that he's old.
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Remember that near-spill from February? Ruddock was Chief Whip at the time, and Abbott fired him as a result. So it's not likely Abbott will turn around and reward him with a high profile, high paying gig. But he's the only one we've heard of, which makes him a frontrunner.Huh. Who else is on the list?
Bruce Scott. Russell Broadbent. Sharman Stone. Andrew Southcott.What are they best known for?
My previous answer.If I somehow never find out who becomes the next Speaker, will this affect my life in any way?
Are you an MP?No.
Then you should be fine. Just stick to the helicopter memes.* literally the only possible way to watch itFollow Lee on Twitter