Why the Speaker needs to go
The Australian Speaker that is.
News.com.au reports:
SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop cost taxpayers $811,857 in expenses last year.
The hefty travel bill for the member for the Northern Beaches electorate of Mackellar does not include two extra charter flights to Young for another fundraiser — just days after her $5227 Geelong helicopter trip — and Nowra for two seniors forums.
A Daily Telegraph analysis of the speaker, who has rapidly lost the confidence of the government front bench, has revealed the enormous expenses the politician costs Australians.
It has also been revealed Mrs Bishop’s trip to Young was just five days after she racked up $5227 for an 80km luxury helicopter trip between Melbourne and Geelong for a party fundraiser.
It can be revealed that in 2014 Mrs Bishop claimed;
●$309,581.99 in overseas trips
●$47,086.14 in domestic trips
●$32,471.12 in limousine travel
●$350,909.63 in office costs
The office costs should not be included, but the total travel costs are staggering – and spending $5,000 to travel 80 kms is indefensible.
As a comparison, The NZ Speaker had just $51,160 in overseas travel costs last year.
His NZ air travel costs were $33,704 and NZ surface travel costs just $8,389. So a total of around $90,000 compared to almost $400,000 by the Australian Speaker.