After three weeks of political bleeding, Tony Abbott has forced the resignation of Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who already earns a $350,000-salary, over her extravagant use of taxpayer-funded entitlements.
The scandal began three weeks ago with revelations that the Speaker had spent $5,227 on a helicopter to ferry her 60km from Melbourne to Geelong for a fundraiser last November. A series of other questionable expenses followed, such as spending a thousand dollars a day on limousine hire instead of using her Comcar. But the tipping point came at the weekend when it was revealed that Mrs Bishop had also spent $6,000 on a charter plane to fly her from Sydney to Nowra, using the same charter company commissioned for the chopper, linked to a close friend of Mrs Bishop.
Of course, these arrogant pigs with their inflated views of their own importance and their exotic entitlements all have their greedy snouts deep in the taxpayer-funded trough. As Barnaby Joyce said in defense of Bishop, "If you start throwing rocks there won't be a person left in the parliament ... If we're going to go on a shooting expedition we'll be getting rid of good politicians on both sides of the house very quickly."
I've heard some wonderful oxymorons in my time but none better than 'good politicians'. As for nobody being left in the parliament, what a wonderful idea!
